Sixth power failure sparks village anger

It has affected the primary school badly and has also resulted in thousands of pounds worth of lost business at the Leigh Delamere service station.

The village lost its electricity supply for two hours on Monday, leaving families, businesses and the school with no source of heat, power or light.

It was the sixth power failure in just three months and brought the total number of hours without electricity in the village to around 13 since July 8.

Residents said they have had enough and they are demanding action from Southern Electricity.

Kington St Michael Primary School headteacher Peter Cousins said the situation was ludicrous.

He said: "In recent months we have had a school disco forced to end early, we had to loan a generator just to stage our school play, and on Monday we had to shut the school altogether."

"It really is ridiculous. I was in school this morning when the power went off, but when I contacted the electricity board I was told they could not guarantee it would come on again that day.

"It had been such a stormy night and we don't have a particularly well-lit school so the classrooms were very dark.

"I also knew we would have no heating, or way of heating up school dinners. The lack of power also meant our interactive whiteboards would not work, so I had to make the decision for health and safety reasons, not to open the school."

While news of the closure was aired on local radio stations, staff from the school stood in the village and at the bus stop alerting parents to the closure.

Unaccompanied children were sent home with their friends while their parents were contacted, and parents brining their children in from Chippenham also received urgent calls telling them not to bother.

Mr Cousins estimated that around 30 working parents would have either had to make alternative arrangements for their children's care, or stay home from work themselves.

"We had no choice but to close," he said.

"But it doesn't end there. In recent months a power cut has forced us to call off a school disco a half hour early and congregate in the dark playground with the children.

"We've also had to loan a generator just to show our school play and now we have had to close for a whole day.

"Each time the power goes out our fire alarm goes off and we have to evacuate. Our school answerphone is also wiped.

"These power cuts are stopping children's fun and their education and parents are losing their wages."

The children returned to school as normal on Tuesday but everyone is just hoping there won't be any more storms."

Primary children weren't the only villagers affected by the latest power cut.

Mother-of-two Cara Mead, 32, of The Ridings said: "When the electricity went off I had no way of heating my baby Emily's milk.

"Luckily, my son's pre-school at the opposite end of the village was open and I was able to take Emily's milk down there to be heated up otherwise she would have had no breakfast.

"It seems like this is happening more and more often, and for us and the many other people without gas in the village, it means we're completely cut off."

Leigh Delamere service station manager Martin Bird is counting the latest losses which now run into thousands of pounds.

He said: "We had to close the westbound services altogether because we had no power. Eastbound we had a generator and were able to operate our self-service restaurant, but we were unable to open Burger King, Little Chef or Thorntons," said Mr Bird.

"I rang Southern Electricity and they said they would come back to me, but seven hours later they still haven't called.

"When the power goes out it means we have to throw away all our hot food and all the food from the chillers during the seven-hour power cut on July 15, this cost £3,500 alone."

Mr Bird criticised Southern Electricity's lack of communication and demanded to know when the fault would be fixed.

"I just want them to tell me whether they are going to fix it soon, or whether we need to invest in a £30,000 generator," he said.

"As well as the loss of business to us, we offer motorists the chance to stop and take a break from the road. When we close it could make driving dangerous for these drivers."

Andrew Noblet, of The Ridings, has lived in Kington St Michael for more than 25 years and said that before May he could only remember one electricity blackout in all that time.

"Soon we shall be into winter and that means he elderly will suffer because of lack of light and heat " he said.

"We need to know why these failures are happening.

"Is Southern Electric investing enough in maintenance? Has the capacity not been increased to match the need? In the 21st century such regular failures of the electricity supply are not acceptable."

Susan Scobie, Southern Electricity spokesman, said they were working hard to resolve the problems.

But, she said, it hinged on the co-operation of a particular Yatton Keynell landowner.

"This is a bit of a problem for us as well," she said. "The power failures are due to the damage of our line at our Yatton Keynell sub station. Although we do have access to the land, the owner has not allowed us to cut the trees and branches around the lines and this has caused a problem for us.

"There should be an area of clearance around the lines when we have stormy weather the tree branches damage the line and cut the power supply.

"We have asked the landowner if we can have access to put that part of the line underground, but this is taking a long time. We are trying to remedy the situation, but this wet and windy weather is making things worse."

Power cuts

July 8 4.50pm-6.10pm

July 15 2.30pm-8pm

July 24 5.10pm-6.20pm

August 24 4.55pm-5.40pm

September 20 10.40am-11.45am

October 4 7.55am-9.40am