Mystery power cuts frustrate villagers

Valerie Wood and Jenny Bexx said they were fed up with the power going off in the village every day

Residents who have been experiencing mystery power outages in a village said they had "had enough".

Villagers in Checkendon, near Henley-on-Thames in Berkshire, said the brief, mostly evening interruptions, had been happening for almost six weeks.

They said the power, during a typical day, went off between two and eight times for up to a couple of minutes.

SSEN has been unable to fully explain the problem but said its engineers were investigating.

Villagers have been left in the dark over the frequent, short power cuts for six weeks

Those living in the village said they were going to bed with torches in case the power went off and had thrown away food from freezers due to the cuts.

Resident Zoe Young said: "It's been nearly six weeks and we haven't had an answer... every night we're just waiting for the lights to go off.

"Collectively we have had enough now.

"Nobody seems to know what is going on and we are just stuck with these constant outages."

Renee Snouckaert, who runs a farm in the village, said: "I have three electricity poles on my land and I have been complaining about the outages.

"Eventually, a team came out and and pruned a tree and said they had solved the problem and everything should be fine, only to find out later that night it didn't make a difference.

"So, how could it be a tree. It's frustrating because we just don't know."

Another resident, Valerie Wood, said: "It's every night - about half past nine and quarter to 10 it starts - and I haven't got a clue what to do. I'm just fed up with it."

SSEN has apologised to residents for the short interruptions which it said were under investigation

A spokesperson from SSEN Distribution said it was doing all it could "to deliver a safe, secure and continuous supply of electricity for the communities in Checkendon".

The power firm said the overhead lines were designed to cut power if anything made contact, "for example a bird strike or a tree branch".

It said the network "will then attempt to reconnect supplies after a period of between 30 and 90 seconds, and if there is no longer any contact, the power will come back on.

"We realise how frustrating this can be, and it is a situation we are actively working on to resolve."