It's nearly 10pm and they have just started drilling right outside my house!!

[mckenzie]

It seems some house a few doors down are without power and they need to drill down to get to the cables to repair them. I just popped outside to ask the guys what was going on and apparently they will be about 2 hours!

Can they do this at this time of night?

Granted I feel sorry for the people being without power but it seems a bit extreme to be drilling (and they are flipping noisy drills) at 10pm on a sunday night.

I guess if they were totally without electricity then they should be able to fix it even late at night. Hopefully it didn't disturb your night too much.

Fwiw there was an accident on a dual carriage way close to our house on saturday and they had to close the road all night for repairs. Cue hours and hours of stop/start jack hammering. I think they finally finished at 5am - I feel your pain! :)

If your power went out on a Sunday, what would be uppermost in your mind, getting it sorted so you and your family could have heat light power etc to see, cook, shower, get ready for work etc or the inconvenience to their neighbours who presumably werent in that situation.
What would you prefer, that they wait all night, without power and call them out in the morning just to avoid annoying people.
I'm sure they would much prefer not to have contactors digging up the street either.
Where's your compassion.

Hang on, I've obviously given the wrong impression! I wasn't suggesting they should stop because my peace was more important than their power.

I just questioned whether they were allowed to do it. I know there are strict rules about workmen, start and finish times, weekends etc as we had to follow them when having our house building work done. I just questioned whether it was actually legal for them to be doing it.
My dcs slept through it and I was still pottering around doing sunday night stuff so it didn't bother me.

Of course they can do it, and they should do it, in an emergency. The workmen will be paid to be on call and to come out in an emergency.

How else do you think emergencies are dealt with?

Yes, they are allowed to do it in an emergency.

Ok. Point taken.

To start digging up the road/path at that time of night there needs to be someone "vulnerable" in the house without power. EG: if it's an average couple, no DC's, then no, they'd have to wait. If it's someone with a baby/special needs etc then yes, they can.
HOWEVER. If you are an average couple and LIE and TELL the power co. that you have a vulnerable person in the house, they won't check up on it and despite any neighbours protestations that there is no child with special needs living there, they will continue drilling and digging till they are finished. (Bastards)

We were left without water for one night last month. I was woken up at 10pm (had only just gone to sleep) and there were workmen outside switching off the water for the whole street, due to flooding in cellars up the road.

They didn't repair it until midday the next day, and not being able to flush the toilets or wash hands, with five of us in the house, was a struggle. (we had emergency bottled water to drink). It would have been even harder if someone had been ill or a baby needed bottled milk.