Power Cut Hits High Street Businesses

Published on: 5 Jul, 2013
Updated on: 6 Jul, 2013

Experience Guildford Blue Cap Pete Lambert is on the scene and on the case: chasing suppliers and warning shopkeepers.

A power cut hit Guildford shops and Abbot’s Hospital this afternoon following repairs being carried out by the High Street entrance to Jeffries Passage.

Shops above Jeffries Passage and round the corner into North Street, including the post office all seemed to be affected by the outage.

The fault was said to be a blown fuse but cut cables were visible in the unmanned hole.

Julian Weeks of the Aveda hair salon, at 167 High Street, said: “We cannot provide a proper service without electricity. They say it is just a fuse but that they will not have the power back on until 3.30pm. This is costing us thousands of pounds and there is no one here we can talk to. It’s not the first time it has happened.”

More than half of the computer services were down in Guildford Post Office. Resulting customer queues can just be seen through the open door.

The post office said five of the four computer system they use for their transaction were down because of the power cut. “We can’t provide all the services at the moment but we are doing the best we can.” said one member of staff who admitted that queues were longer as a result.

Tony Richmond, the master at Abbot’s Hospital, appeared resigned. “Luckily it is not affecting all parts of the hospital,” he said. And in the warm weather at least none of the residents would be cold.

A spokesperson for UK Power Network confirmed that a blown fuse was thought to be the cause of the problem and that it hoped to restore power at 3.30pm.

4.04pm UPDATE Power still out. Now expected to be restored at 7pm.

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