NORTH Oxford residents have finally got action after raising safety fears about an electricity substation built inside a new home.

A notice on the electricity transformer warns “Danger of Death: Keep Out.”

But despite the fact that it is a short distance from SS Philip and James’ Primary School, for months the transformer has been separated from the street by a thin metal fence leaning against the wall.

The original sub-station was demolished to make way for two flats at 1 Hayfield Road. But the developer had to replace it with a new sub-station, which is installed in a garage-type space under one of the flats.

Hayfield Road Residents’ Association complained that the transformer was inadequately protected.

Association spokesman Harry Hadaway said: “This potentially hazardous electricity transformer unit is completely unsecured, with only a thin metal fence simply leaned up against the wall, that can be opened right out, allowing easy access to passers-by.

“The residents feel that this situation is extremely hazardous, given the very large number of small schoolchildren in particular who pass along the pavement both in the morning and again at the end of the day. Residents have regularly asked for a date as to when this work will be completed.”

Just 24 hours after the association issued its statement to the Oxford Mail, staff from Scottish & Southern Energy arrived on Wednesday afternoon to install the safety doors – with the power company and property owner Oliver Cohen blaming each other for the delay.

Mr Cohen was given planning permission to demolish the previous electricity substation and build two one-bedroom flats by Oxford City Council last August. As part of the plan, he agreed to create space for the new transformer.

But Mr Cohen said the area containing the substation was leased to Scottish and Southern’s distribution arm. He said: “The company is in charge of maintaining the transformer and keeping it safe.”

He said he had repeatedly pressed the company to fit the safety doors since mid-January. Mr Cohen said the new transformer was safer and quieter than the one previously standing on the site.

Scottish and Southern spokes-man Greg Clarke said: “The doors are being fitted as we speak. The developer was originally due to fit them. As soon as we found the developer had not fitted the doors, which had been part of the planning permission, we took it on board.

“It was always our intention to get this done.There is no danger to the public.”

John Mair, a university lecturer who lives in Hayfield Road, said residents were also worried about the levels of electro-magnetic fields produced in a residential area.

He said: “You have to wonder where it goes. I have never seen an electricity sub-station built into the middle of a house before.”