The Parish Council has received the following statement from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN):
Over the course of the last year Long Wittenham has been experiencing multiple short interruptions to its power supply; this was particularly evident over the summer period of 2020. Whilst these interruptions were short in nature, they were frustrating, and we are extremely sorry for any inconvenience caused.
These interruptions are called auto recloses and it is a protection device operating on our network to protect it from interference.
Investigations showed that the interference was being caused by trees touching our overhead lines.
We have been working hard to cut the trees in your area and this has improved the reliability of your supply considerably since completion.
SSEN would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused, and would like to remind all of its customers of the additional services they can receive to help them deal with issues such as adverse weather and power cuts. Details are on the SSEN website.
If you are ever concerned about the close proximity of trees or have a safety concern regarding our network you can report this by calling 105.
Once again, please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Once again the trees are being blamed .I have now lived in the village for 17 years and either the birds or the trees have been blamed every time. This is disruption up sets all electrical items in the home . I would have thought the electric company would have had a rolling programme of tree monitoring and tree works.
Am I being cynical but firmly believe there must be other causes than the poor old trees for the constant breaks in a service we all pay for.