Power returns to homes following major West Sussex outage

Residents in Steyning, Henfield, Hurstpierpoint, Shoreham and surrounding villages awoke to power cuts this morning.

Engineers became aware of the issues at 7.16am following a fault on an overhead power cable and have now diverted power to return electricity to 2,606 homes.

A statement from UK Power Networks issued this update: “Today's power cut was an unexpected fault on our overhead equipment that affected 2,606 properties, so I'm sorry that we weren't able to provide you with prior notice. I'm pleased to report our staff have resolved this by diverting power to get your lights back on as soon as possible."

UK Power Networks had said on its website: “We're investigating a high voltage overhead electricity line fault which has caused a power cut in the local area.”