A HEREFORD man says he was left "incandescent with rage" as his Christmas Day was blighted by the sound of a diesel generator coming from a city college.

Hereford Sixth Form College was called selfish and incompetent by Aylestone Hill resident Jeffrey Hancorn because of the generators its using due to a power failure at the Folly Lane site.

He said was was "incandescent with rage" at the "complete disregard for its neighbours".

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He said he could hear the generator running from inside his home on Christmas Day, with the college saying it needed the generators after a major power failure.

"Incredible incompetence with them unable to repair a faulty electric wire and having the idiotic idea to run this polluting noisy planet killing machines over Christmas to light up an empty college," Mr Hancorn said, saying he and his neighbours were suffering due to the college's incompetence.

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But in a letter sent to Mr Hancorn and his neighbours, the college said it had no choice.

Deputy principal Phil Tranter said that the college had a major electrical failure in December and had to close for a day.

Investigations found that a switch feeding the sixth form buildings in the electricity substation had failed.

But replacing the part would be a "major undertaking", with power to Herefordshire and Ludlow College and Hereford College of Arts also needing to be switched off.

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So to avoid disruptions to students, the work was pencilled in to take place over the Christmas holidays, but in the meantime, two large generators were needed 24 hours a day.

He had hoped that they would be switched off on Tuesday, December 20, but according to Mr Hancorn, that wasn't the case.

Mr Tranter added: "We would like to apologise for any noise pollution that this may cause in the area, but have no alternative for powering our buildings during this time."