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Students left out in cold

Students at St Anne’s have expressed anger after boiler breakdowns deprived them of hot showers. The college’s Bevington House accommodation now has two boilers which have “failed beyond repair.”

In an email sent out to the JCR, Domestic Bursar Martin Jackson explained, “I am very sorry that we have reached this situation and apologise for the inconvenience that this loss causes. As some of you know we have suffered from a ‘boiler crisis’ over the Winter and Spring via a series of completely unconnected events.

“It would be inappropriate to recommend ‘showering with a friend’, but I hope that colleagues in other buildings will offer showering facilities to occupants of one and two, and five to ten Bev for the next seven days.” One Bevington resident complained about the college’s slowness to act.

She said, “I’m fed up with having cold showers or trekking to ATB [‘Above the Bar’ accommodation] to have a shower and the college’s ‘hopefulness that there will be sufficient water throughout the day to cope with your demands’ was rubbish even before the second boiler broke.

“However I guess we don’t really have a choice but to grin and bear it as it’s been made clear that complaining won’t make anything happen any quicker.” Matthew Powell, another of the students affected, commented, “I’m convinced I came close to death taking a cold shower the other day.”
Powell claims that he coped by showering in other St Anne’s accommodation, but added, “There are rumours that residents of ATB are going to start charging for the privilege.” Jackson reported that both of the block’s two boilers had been found leaking on 29 April, but that one had kept working until 2 May.

Work on the boilers started on Tuesday and should be completed by this Friday. He commented, “The situation is regrettable and I have apologised to occupants, but we were not able to forecast that this would happen.”

Some students have suggested that compensation should be awarded, although one student admitted, “Given that there was no compensation awarded when students were without heating in Hilary, there is relatively little chance of it being awarded now.” St Anne’s Ruth Deech building faced the unconnected ‘boiler crisis’ over the winter.

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