Thousands hit by power cut

Thousands of homes and businesses in and around Bridgnorth were left without power today after thieves broke into and vandalised a sub-station.More than 4,500 properties in the town and in nearby areas, including Worfield, Stockton, Badger, Morville and Muckley Cross, lost power at about 9.40am. Engineers restored power to about 600 homes by 11am, with the rest back on shortly after 1pm.

Shops and banks in the town's High Street had to close, with many hanging signs up in the windows apologising to customers.

Those that were open expressed concerns about loss of trade and damage to stock.

Penny Martin, who owns Penny's Fine Foods in the Indoor Market, said her stock was okay but she had feared she would have been forced to throw most of it away if the power had remained off during the afternoon.

She estimated that such an action would cost her thousands of pounds in lost revenue.

Spokeswoman for Central Networks, Deanna Mooney, said: "We had reports of a power failure at 9.40am which was affecting 4,523 properties in and around Bridgnorth.

"We had reports of a sub-station being vandalised and we sent engineers out immediately to try and get as many switched back on as soon as possible.

"The engineers' main priority was to get people reconnected by switching people to other parts of the network and then fix the damage to the sub-station."

The spokeswoman added that she could not reveal which sub-station had been attacked in case it was targeted by vandals again in the future.

Spokeswoman for West Mercia Police, Maria Hawkaluk, said police had received no reports of vandalism at any local sub-stations.

This is the third major power cut to hit the town since December.

In February, almost 6,000 homes were left without electricity for up to eight hours.

The cut was because of a fault that developed in an underground cable.

And in December, more than 1,300 homes and businesses were affected after damage was caused to an underground cable in Oldbury Road.

By Jonathan Wood