Carlisle business park gets power restored
Last updated 16:19, Friday, 29 August 2008
Electricity was today restored to businesses hit by a major power failure on a Carlisle industrial estate.
Bosses at Kingmoor Park have shipped in a massive generator capable of powering a small town to help affected firms.
Companies on the former RAF 14MU site were left without electricity after a damaged transformer - believed to have been caused by a cable problem - cut the supply.
Although engineers managed to get most buildings back on-line on Wednesday night, a handful of firms were still without power for much of yesterday.
The giant generator was brought in and fired up just after midnight, meaning all buildings again had power. Estate management have praised their tenants for the way they responded to the powercut and said they have been doing everything they could to help.
Austen Davies, owner of Fosters Fish and Game and Border County Food, says he has lost thousands of pounds-worth of perishable stock because his fridges and freezers were hit by the failure.
He was without power on Wednesday and yesterday and has now brought in his own generator, which will cost him £30-a-day to run.
Mr Davies, who has become increasingly frustrated by the situation, said today: “I’m feeling less and less happy as the time moves on and it isn’t over yet.
“I haven’t fallen out with anybody and hopefully I won’t. I made my point reasonably forcefully yesterday.”
As well as having to throw out a large amount of fresh fish and game, Mr Davies has been unable to fulfil a contract to supply a top Lancashire hotel with food and had to cancel plans to save produce in Kendal today.
Some firms at Kingmoor - including IT and engineering firm Capita, which employs 450 people at its offices - already had generators that kicked-in when the power was lost. Others managed to work without electricity.
Power supply firm United Utilities said they found no fault with the cables they were responsible for, but that engineers had helped restore power to parts of the estate to give them time to repair the fault.
