Anger as lights go out

Now Market Street resident John Stockdale is demanding that something be done about the problem.

'We lost our power supply for almost three hours at 10pm on Saturday night,' he said.

'This is the third time in a month this has happened. Each time I have phoned the emergency line to be told that this is due to a three-phase fault at the North Street sub-station and that this is the reason why not all premises have been affected.

'I understand that the same premises have been affected each time.

'Many assume wrongly that because lights are on in the rest of the town, the fault must lie within their own wiring.

'They might needlessly call out an electrician at their own expense, as I almost did.

'At the very least, Seeboard should advertise and publicise the fact. We also need an assurance that the fault has been rectified.'

A Seeboard spokesman said: 'We offer our apologies for the inconvenience to customers in Lewes resulting from three recent power supply interruptions caused by faults at the sub-station.

'There were incidents on December 6 and 8 and on Saturday night.

'Our investigations have revealed no underlying problem. Before December, supplies had not been affected for many months by any faults associated with the sub-station.

'A problem with one of the three phases affects between 50 and 60 customers in this instance.

If customers are not sure how widespread any problems might be, they should contact Seeboard's emergency helpline on 0800 783 8866.