Power cuts return to blight the Woolton Hill/surrounding area over Easter

The cut affected 1,600 households on Easter Sunday (Mar 31) with generators brought in as a temporary solution again breaking down - a repeat performance of last year's power failures in the same area.
Southern Electric spokeswoman, Hannah Gleave, confirmed a total 1,600 customers were affected by the 6.45am cut on Easter Sunday (Mar 31), caused by a fault on the high voltage network.
Supplies were restored to the majority of customers by 8am, but a remaining 426 remained without power, with customers restored in stages, between 1pm and 3pm the same day.
Unfortunately, she continued, a generator brought in to temporarily restore supplies to customers in Heath End then broke down and supplies to these remaining customers were not restored until 9.30pm that day.
“At the moment we still have customers on (with power supplies restored by) mobile generators. Engineers are on site and investigations continuing with final repairs to be made in the next two days,” said Ms Gleave.
It was not known, she added, how many customers remained connected to power supplies in the area due to the temporary use of generators.
Last July, Woolton Hill villagers demanded action, after suffering five power cuts in two weeks, and which also affected properties in the surrounding area, including Ball Hill, Highclere - including Highclere Castle - and Penwood.
859 properties were affected by a July 10 power cut and on July 16 a generator used to restore supplies failed.
A further, July 24 power cut last year affected 1,600 properties in the area, and on July 25 a generator brought in to restore supplies in Woolton Hill again broke down.
Last year the company said about 300m of underground cable would be replaced to strengthen the network, with the area also given high priority status last year, in view of the high volume of power failures