Three days of power cuts along Burnham-On-Sea’s High Street have left shop owners fuming this week after many have had to turn away customers
Over thirty homes and businesses at the southern end of The High Street have suffered power supply problems since Monday, with the cuts lasting several hours.
Among the shops affected have been Clarks, Burnham Shopping Centre, The Galley Cafe, Caboodle, Imagination, The Emporium, Fonehouse, Mommas Cafe, and Superchips plus nearby homes.
Western Power Distribution had several teams of workmen on the scene on Wednesday, as pictured, and they finally resolved the problems at 8.30pm.
George Panayi from The Galley Cafe told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The power cuts have been very disruptive, affecting our lunchtime trade on three days. The cafe was really packed and we had to turn away customers mid-lunch.”
Another trader, Kirstie Cooper from Caboodle, right, added: “We were without power on Monday afternoon, then had an ‘on and off’ service on Tuesday and a long cut on Wednesday. We’ve lost trade because customers have been unable to buy anything while our card payment machine has been out of action.”
Carol Parfitt at The Emporium added: “There has been no information at all from the power company about whether they are resolving the problems.”
Western Power Distribution spokeswoman Irene Evans apologised and told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “A total of 35 customers have been affected and we are really sorry for the inconvenience caused.”
“We have been dealing with an intermittent fault in the High Street which we initially were unable to resolve. It was found to be an underground cable fault on Wednesday afternoon.”
“We decided to delay the repair work until later in the day on Wednesday when many shops were closed to try and minimise the disruption.”
Several shops were forced to close early on Wednesday, including Clarks, Momma’s cafe and Superchips.
