Valley darkened by blackout (From Stroud News and Journal)

Valley darkened by blackout

ELECTRICTY company Central Networks has apologised to thousands of Golden Valley residents hit by six blackouts in just 12 nights.

Desiree French, 70, from Brimscombe who endured each of the cuts between Friday, January 21 and Thursday, February 3, described the supply as abysmal.

She said: "We're not having terrible weather, no gales, storms or snow or anything like that but we are getting a bit tired of stumbling around with candles. My husband and I are both in our 70s. This last fortnight has been pretty grim. It was cold, dark and miserable." Mrs French's husband Dennis, 72, a woodturner for Painswick Woodcrafts.

His wife said it was lucky the cuts did not take place during the day when he could have been in the workshop.

"It has not been during working hours, which is quite fortunate because it is dangerous when you're using a machine and the electricity is not there anymore," she said.

Staff and residents of the rehabilitation centre Nelson House were kept awake by fire alarms sounding at a constant high pitch each time the electricity cut out.

Up to two cuts a night took place on Friday, January 21, Sunday, January 23, Sunday, January 30 and Thursday, February 3 affecting between 131 and 3,704 residents at a time.

Central Networks spokesman Rebecca Middleton said: "There's no underlying cause unfortunately. They're all separate incidents at all different parts of the network.

"We had high winds in January so that would have affected the overhead network and unfortunately the other faults were underground cable faults on different parts of the network and we apologise for that.

"On each occasion we did absolutely everything we could to get customers back on supply as quickly as we could."