A CRAVEN church has been billed £1,000 a month for using an electric storage heater and lights one day a week.

It is one of a number of problems with energy suppliers reported to the Herald after our article last week.

Lothersdale Church uses the heater overnight on Saturday to warm up the room where the vicar changes before the Sunday services.

David Beaumont, treasurer of the Parochial Church Council, which manages the church building, has spent hours on the phone trying to untangle the bills.

He explained that the problems started 18 months ago when the PCC received a bill estimated at £500 which seemed excessive.

Mr Beaumont contacted the call centre of energy supplier npower. He says he spent hours on the phone, going through various departments, listening to music and having to explain his problem several times over as he was transferred from one person to another.

As the queries dragged on, more and more bills were sent, the final one for £15,000 for a 15-month period.

Mr Beaumont confirmed that the only electricity used was for a storage heater (ironically on 'low tariff' Economy Seven) and light bulbs. The main church is heated by oil.

Meter reading is subcontracted out and the church had four visits - requiring someone to sit in the church all day waiting for the reader to arrive.

On the first occasion the meter was read, but nothing happened. The second reader said the meter was faulty and needed replacing. A third reader said there was nothing wrong with it and took a reading. A fourth reader again said the meter needed replacing and finally it was changed.

Eventually a bill for £120 arrived and the PCC paid it, thinking all had been resolved.

Then, at the end of February, another bill arrived - £1,100 for the quarter. When he queried it again a meter reader was sent - who said the new meter needed replacing.

"I have spent hours on the phone listening to music, hanging on, talking to different departments," said Mr Beaumont. "That is the annoying part of it, it just takes so much time and effort and you don't get anywhere."

The Herald contacted npower for a comment, but it was still looking into the problem as the paper went to press.