Shopworkers say series of power cuts hit trade

Shopworkers have said a series of power outages over the weekend had a "devastating" impact on trade.

One side of Sadler Gate in Derby was affected by the "repeated" power cuts which led shops, hairdressers, pubs and restaurants to close during their busiest period of the week.

National Grid has apologised for the three separate outages from 22:09 GMT on Friday to 00:25, then from 08:40 to 17:04 on Saturday and 13:27 on Sunday to 00:03 on Monday, which were caused by two underground cable faults and subsequent repairs.

Traders have said they are concerned the power cuts and the holes left in the road by the repairs might deter customers from returning.

Jason Marshall, owner of Foulds Guitars said the power outage led to a "complete write off weekend".

"I was without power most of Saturday so I had to close", said Mr Marshall, who is located in the Strand Arcade that joins onto Sadler Gate.

"It's just annoying and we have genuinely lost thousands because of this."

"Our average Saturday is around £3,000 worth of earnings and on Sunday the power was still off. I had one man come in for a repair whilst the power was on for a short time, so we earned around £130."

Melanie Lowe, who runs The Fig at the top of Sadler Gate, also had to close on Saturday.

"Normally Saturday is my busiest day for footfall and it helps make around a third of my takings, so it was massive blow," she said.

"It was devastating for businesses on Sadler Gate. I hate letting my customers down."

Ms Lowe added she hopes the holes dug into the pavement to carry out repairs will be filled soon to return the street to normal.

"It looks awful. I'm hoping whoever is putting it back together comes soon, because it's a mess," she said.

Karl Shaw, who runs the coffee and casual menswear shop Mr Shaw's House, said the outage was also a "massive blow" for him financially.

He added: "We had a gig on that night, we had a sell out gig, our biggest to date. Without power, we had to move the gig elsewhere which meant we earned no money from that event."

"We were all running around like headless chickens trying to speak with National Grid to get some answers. They thought they got it sorted midday on Saturday but that didn't get fixed. It was complete mayhem."

Shaw believes he missed out on around £1,500 in drink sales from the gig.

Karen Bruce, owner of Salamander piercing and tattoo shop, said: "It was dreadful, it was an awful day.

"I've been told cables are old and cracked, so I am unsure whether they will take up all the cables along the entire street.

"I just want restoration works so we don't have to worry about it happening again."

A National Grid spokesperson said: "We're aware of repeated power cuts affecting local businesses on Sadler Gate in Derby, and we're sorry for the disruption over the weekend.

"Our engineers excavated on Sunday to locate and repair the cable fault.

"We understand how difficult this can be for local traders, and we appreciated their patience and understanding while we worked to resolve the issue as quickly and safely as possible."

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