Kidlington and Yarnton: Power outage leaves area without supplies

Kidlington has a population of 14,945, according to the 2021 census

A major power cut affecting thousands of people has left businesses without supplies and forced schools to close.

The outage in Kidlington and Yarnton, Oxfordshire, was first reported at 07:10 GMT, allowing headteachers to notify parents before pupils arrived for the start of the school day.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSE) has engineers working to fix the fault.

It said it hoped to have supplies restored to all customers by 14:00.

The BBC understands the majority of Kidlington's 10 schools were forced to close as a result of the outage.

'Cold and icy'

A spokeswoman for West Kidlington Primary and Nursery School, which is attended by 432 children, said power "keeps coming on and off" and the premises had no heating.

"The facilities manager is not sure when supplies will be restored, it's very cold and icy," the spokeswoman told the BBC.

The school was hoping to reopen around midday.

Edward Feild Primary School, which has 299 pupils, said it was scheduled to welcome pupils back by mid morning.

St Thomas More Catholic Primary School, where 200 children study, said it would close until lunchtime.

MCFP Fire and Security, which is based at the Glenmore Business Park, said its supplies had been intermittent from about 07:00.

SSE said 2,000 customers in Yarnton and Kidlington were initially affected following damage to an overhead cable but the majority of those had supplies restored within an hour.