Power restored after Saffron Walden High Street cable fire

The traffic lights on Saffron Walden High Street are now working again – while power has also been restored to 77 properties after faulty cables caught fire yesterday morning (Thursday).

UK Power Networks said a fault had occurred on a piece of equipment in the electricity company’s underground network.

Firefighters were originally called to the scene at around 10am, remaining on standby with a foam branch layed out while the electricity company isolated the power, before leaving the fault in the hands of UK Power Networks at about midday.

Part of the path near the traffic lights at the junction with George Street was dug up, while the loss of power meant the traffic lights were out of action between yesterday afternoon and this morning.

A UK Power Networks spokesman apologised to the residents and businesses who lost power because of the problem.

He said: “Our engineers isolated electricity supplies to those customers at around 11.45am to enable them to safely make permanent repairs to the electrical cable junction box.

“All customers had their supplies returned to normal by about 2.15pm.

“We realise how frustrating it is to be without power and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”