A street in central Harrogate has spent the past three working days in darkness after the power company failed to fix a fault.
Businesses on Victoria Avenue said that the constant power cuts have been very disruptive.
Northern Powergrid has been trying the fix the issue since Friday. However, businesses report that, each day, the power goes off for several hours and offices have had to close as a result.
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Many on the street are offices, but there are also opticians and dental practices which have had to cancel some appointments.
Andrew Gray, the director of Truth Legal and a landlord on the street, told the Stray Ferret that all of his tenants have gone home:
“It has been massively disruptive. I have a team of lawyers, together with five sets of tenants in this building, and they are all trying to work from home. With coronavirus some businesses are already prepared to switch to home working but there are some office staff who don’t have laptops.”
David Simister, one of the directors at Different PR, also told the Stray Ferret:
“There haven’t been this many power cuts since the Winter of Discontent. It is a nightmare to deal with but I have been able to work from home as a result. Following on from coronavirus this has been the last thing many businesses on this street need.”
Northern Powergrid’s live power map shows that 40 properties have been affected. A spokesperson said:
“We have had engineers out again today. They dug up the road to get access to the faulty cables. It will only be a temporary fix but it should stop the power going out on an intermittent basis.”
