in-cumbria

Carlisle traders fear for business after fourth power cut

By Emily Parsons

Last updated at 12:26, Tuesday, 29 January 2013

An angry shop owner has called for answers, after parts of Carlisle lost power for the fourth time in four months.

From left, Marion Whittaker, from Print Point, Carol Roberts, from Carol Roberts, of Couture Bridal, Martin Coulthard, from Nicholson and Coulthard Jewellers and Matt Whyte-Earl, from the Cybercafe

Carol Roberts contacted the News & Star in frustration yesterday, after her couture bridal shop in Warwick Road was plunged into darkness for 50 minutes.

“You can put up with it once or maybe twice, but on the fourth time it’s a concern for your business,” she said.

When the latest power outage happened, at 1.45pm, Carol had six women in for a bridesmaid fitting.

She explained: “They had travelled by train all the way from Flimby because they could all get the day off work. I was only on the second when the power went down.”

Carol called North West Electricity, who sent someone to repair the problem, subsequently calling her back and saying the power was expected to be back on between 4pm and 2am.

“I wasn’t going to make the girls wait that long,” Carol continued, “so I sent them home. They’ve said they’ll come back on Monday, but they’ve lost out and so I feel I should recompense them.

“They were going to pay a deposit of £1,000, so while I am hopeful they will come back, you send these people away fearful they may not.”

She said in these difficult economic times, the “never knowing when it will happen” was making it very difficult to continue.

Electricity North West confirmed there had been three power outages in the Crosby Street area since November. Yesterday’s affected 26 customers at 1.53pm. Power was restored at 2.35pm.

Jane Fleetwood, response manager for Electricity North West, said: “I apologise to customers who have recently been affected by interruptions to their power supply.

“Further investigations have revealed an issue on the low voltage network possibly due to increased demand. Engineers are taking measures to monitor the network and will take appropriate action.“

First published at 11:36, Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk