Squirrel cuts power

A power cut that brought manufacturing to a halt and caused computers to shut down in shops, banks and offices in Uckfield on Monday was blamed on a squirrel.

The remains of the creature were found when Seeboard investigated a high voltage fault in the Coopers Green area which cut electricity supplies to !,441 customers at 12.49pm.

Most customers were reconnected by 2.20pm but some businesses were without power for about three hours, and the Coopers Green pumping station was without electricity until 5.16pm.

Southern Water was unable to use its emergency generator at the pumping station because Seeboard was working on the transformer. The water company had to bring in a tanker to store the flow of waste water passing through the station until power was restored.

The cut affected shops, banks and offices at the north end of the High Street and factories on the Bellfarm industrial estate.

Al Ballard, manufacturing director at TR Fastenings, said 50 fully-loaded machines stopped working and production staff could do nothing for three hours.

'We are a very competitive business and have tight budgets to meet for the month, and three hours' unexpected time out is fairly catastrophic,' he said.

At Crowsons marketing assistant Angela Bowling said production was halted there too; computers went down and lights went out. 'Sales staff were able to continue taking calls but couldn't process any of them,' she said.

In town Lloyds TSB bank was left in darkness and computers crashed. Staff were still working yesterday to repair some of the computers damaged by the power cut. Barclays bank was hit too.

The Volunteer Bureau on the opposite side of the road was also affected and unable to receive telephone calls.

Computers went blank and the phones went dead at The Picture House and box office manageress Carol Richards said she had to lock up and go home because she couldn't work but the power was back on in time for a 4pm film showing.

'It is very bad for business when this sort of thing happens, Miss Richards said.