Concern over power cuts

When a power cut hit the town on Wednesday afternoon businesses like solicitors Rix and Kay, at 88 High Street, and bakers Patisserie Valentin, at 100 High Street, were forced to close early.

Problems continued the next day for the bakery when a cut in the early hours meant they could not use ovens. On top of that the disruption to the supply crashed a computer which controls temperatures in a room where bread is stored prior to baking.

'We had no light in the shop from 3pm on Wednesday and had to light candles. It was very bad,' said Mrs Patricia Valentin. All the white loaves which should have been in the shop on Friday morning were lost and there were no croissants or quiches because of the power cut in the early hours.

A further power cut on Friday afternoon threatened the switch on of Christmas lights but the electricity came back on just in time.

Mrs Hilary Hughes, a partner at the Heathfield office of Rix and Kay, said their 25 staff were sent home on Wednesday afternoon.

'Without power we have no heat, no light, no computers, no phones and we have to shut. We lost a great deal of money that afternoon,' said Mrs Hughes.

Her company had installed extra equipment on their computer system to prevent them losing work during short power cuts which used to happen regularly.

She said that after a campaign to improve the electricity supply within Heathfield last year problems seemed to improve but now she was concerned again. 'We have never ever managed to get a penny compensation out of the power networks and there is no explanation or suggestion that anything is being done to improve it.'

A Seeboard spokesman said a fault in a transformer at Tilsmore Corner substation interrupted supplies which were switched in stages by alternative routes to bypass the problem, and all customers were back to normal just before 7pm.

'Because of the additional demands placed on this temporary arrangement, a further problem occurred in the morning of Friday 29th. A fuse tripped around the time when Christmas lights were due to be switched on that afternoon, but Seeboard engineers were on site at the time and restored supplies after about 14 minutes.'

He emphasised that the problems were unconnected with previous difficulties.

l Lights go on: P 9