ONGOING power cuts that have been causing problems for businesses and homeowners in a busy Barnard Castle street have been resolved.
Northern Powergrid said the intermittent electricity cuts that have forced traders in Galgate to close early should now be over after the company’s extensive repair work was completed at the weekend.
For several months power in the Galgate area has been failing for anything from a few minutes to several hours, causing problems for local traders and peo-le living in the area.
Just before Christmas shops were forced to close when the electricity failed and last Wednesday and Thursday the problem returned.
Sharon Stevens, from Niche Living in Galgate, said her shop has suffered from problems with its electricity supply since she opened it in 2011.
She said: “I can’t get over the number of times the electricity has gone off since we’ve been here. Luckily we’ve got quite a large space so one side of the building can go off but the other side will stay on.
“There was a really bad spell before Christmas and it’s quite embarrassing when you have a shop full of customers.”
A spokesperson for Northern Powergrid said the fault had been triggered by bad weather but Ms Stevens said that the cuts have also happened when the weather was fine.
She said: “I don’t think it’s just been when the weather has been bad. And how can the weather affect the cables when they’re underground?”
Last week the problems escalated to such an extent that the owner of Spitfire Cycles, Richard Varcoe, has to close his shop and staff at nearby furniture store Oliviers had to show customers around by torchlight.
Julie Forrest from Olivier said: “We were on and off like a yo-yo last week and there was trouble on the run up to Christmas.
“We have two phases of electricity so when one goes off we still have the other side. On Wednesday one side went and we had no phones, no computers, no card machine and no heating. Then on Thursday, the other part went off and the doors went haywire and they wouldn’t close, which isn’t ideal in the winter.
“At one point there was a gent in looking for a bed and I had to show him up the back of the store with a torch. But obviously he’s not going to buy anything that he can’t see properly so it does have a real impact on business.”
A spokesperson for Northern Powergrid said they had been aware of the situation in Galgate since November and the fault had been pinned down to a problem with an underground cable.
Investigative equipment was installed at the end of last year to establish exactly where the fault was. But, said the spokesperson, the fault had gone dormant until last week.
Eventually the problem was located underground at the junction between Galgate and Flatts Road and has now been repaired.
The spokesperson said: “We would like to apologise to all of our customers who have been affected by loss of power. We would like to reassure everyone that we have been working extremely hard to find the fault which has now been repaired.”