Power cut puts out lights at Marlborough nursing home (From This Is Wiltshire)

Power cut puts out lights at Marlborough nursing home

8:06am Tuesday 15th December 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

A nursing home with 60 elderly residents many of whom require around the clock attention was one of the victims of a night-long power failure which affected streets in the Hyde Lane areas of Marlborough overnight.

A spokesman for Southern Electricity apologised for the power cut caused by a fault with an underground cable and said power should be restored from an emergency generator by about nine o’clock this morning.

Families had Hyde Lane,St John’s Close, Cross Lane and Leaze Road had power when they switched off their TV’s and went to bed last night.

Shortly after midnight there was a complete power failure leaving residents in those streets and at Merlin Court residential and nursing home without any electricity.

Merlin Court staff had to rely on their own back-up system to give them emergency lighting through the night.

A spokesman for Southern Electric said: “There has been a fault in one of our underground cables affecting the power supply to approximately 70 properties.”

The spokesman confirmed that Merlin Court was among those properties left without power.

He said: “Engineers were out all night and when they were unable to carry out repairs they decided to bring in an emergency generator.

“Unfortunately when it arrived it was too big for the access road to get it in.

“We have had to send a smaller generator which is now on site and the power should be back on by 8.30-9 o’clock this morning.”

The spokesman said he was unable to comment on this part of the town having a historic problem with power failures and said: “Analysis of all faults in any particular area is regularly carried out and if there is a connection between them then that problem will be ironed out.”