Stowmarket: A freezing young family has gone without warmth on two occasions, for a total of about 30 hours, after problems with their energy supplier.

Keith Hardwick, 21, of Kent Road, Stowmarket, called E.on on Sunday December 4, when radiators in his flat went cold and he started to worry about his two young children.

Mr Hardwick lives with his girlfriend Kim Hewitt, 20, and two children, Dylan two, who has breathing difficulties because he was born prematurely, and three-month old Ella.

A spokeswoman for E.on said they were sorry for the inconvenience and the upset it had caused Mr Hardwick and his family.

Mr Hardwick said: “My gas meter in my flat stopped working at 6.30pm on the Sunday night so E.on said that an engineer would get to us by 11pm to fix the problem.

“We stayed up until 11pm waiting for the engineer to come, but no one did. I have two young kids – we were putting extra layers on and the windows were frosting up.

“I phoned E.on up in the morning - the engineer sorted it out on Monday afternoon at 2pm and said that he had ordered a new gas card for us.”

But the card did not arrive and by 9am on Friday Mr Hardwick was again without any heating.

He called E.on in the morning, but had to wait until 7pm for an engineer to come out and fix the meter again.

An E.on spokeswoman said: “We take all complaints seriously and have undertaken a full investigation of Mr Hardwick’s concerns with the utility services company which was responsible for the meter repair.

“We recommend that anyone who has concerns with their energy supply contact us directly.”