Narborough Parish Council, near Swaffham (pop 1,000), paid thousands of pounds over the odds after supplier npower Business Solutions mixed it up with Narborough Parish Council in Leicestershire (pop 8,600).

The firm has now been ordered to refund £10,065.87, make a £500 goodwill payment and apologise by the Energy Ombudsman.

Parish clerk Sara Porter began to question the size of the bills after she started at the council in early 2021.

Sara Porter, the clerk at Narborough Parish Council (Image: Sara Porter)

"When I joined this council, the members had no idea they were being diddled," she said.

"It's only luck that, because I work for another larger council, I spotted this straight away."

Mrs Porter also served as parish clerk at Watlington, between Lynn and Downham Market.

She noticed that while Narborough was responsible for the upkeep of 56 street lights, it was paying more for its electricity than Watlington, which had 79.

Narborough was charged £3,237 in 2022-23, while Watlington was billed £2,349. The following year Narborough's bill came to £3,729, while Watlington's totalled £2,723.

Some of the 56 streetlights in Narborough in Norfolk (Image: Chris Bishop)

"Narborough was therefore paying around £1,000 more each year than Watlington, but for 23 less lights," said Mrs Porter. "The maths clearly didn't add up and I got digging.

"I soon discovered on the npower dashboard that this council had two other accounts set up on it, both of which were for Narborough Parish Council in Leicestershire."

The bill for one of the Leicestershire village's two accounts was sent to the correct parish council,........

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