MELIDEN residents have faced disruption from three power cuts in the last week, as well as two sets of temporary traffic lights in the village.
The cuts took place on the evenings of March 16, 19 and 20, with the second instance part of a wider outage which also affected much of Prestatyn.
Excavation work carried out by ScottishPower to try and resolve the issues has caused a set of temporary traffic lights to be set up at the junction by the post office on Ffordd Talargoch.
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Prestatyn residents experience power cut due to cable fault
Jacob Riddle, who lives in Meliden, said this is causing further traffic problems, given another set of temporary lights was already in place by the village’s golf club.
He said: “I’ve been speaking to SP Energy, because we had one (power cut) on Thursday night, which took the village out.
“The response we got was that they knew that there was an issue, and that it was something to do with an underground cable, outside The Miners Arms, I believe.
“Credit to them, they got it back on within a couple of hours, but we then had another on Sunday night, which took out most of Prestatyn, as well.
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“As a result of that, at the junction by the post office, SP Energy have dug two massive holes and stuck a set of temporary traffic lights up. It’s believed, again, that the underground cables blew there.
“It went again on Monday night – they said it’s rare for to happen on three days, but it’s still happened.”
Jacob said the disruption has caused him difficulty in preparing for his A-Level exams.
He added that, in some cases, traffic has backed up as far as Voel Coaches’ depot in Dyserth due to temporary lights.
These problems, he said, have exacerbated what he perceives as a wider utilities issue in Meliden as a whole.
Jacob said: “It’s not great – I’ve got two A-Level coursework dates coming up, and for three days now, I’ve been disrupted.
“There’s already another set of temporary traffic lights further up, by Meliden Golf Club – the result is that people have been 20 or 30 minutes late for work this week.
“Traffic has been backing up as far as Voel Coaches’ depot on occasion, thanks to those two sets of traffic lights.
“To be honest, there is a utilities issue in the village as a whole. There’s a feeling that the utilities in Meliden tend to be neglected.”
In response, ScottishPower apologised for the disruption caused by the interruptions, and said sites affected by the excavation work will be cleared as soon as it is completed.
A spokesperson for SP Energy Networks said: “Due to three cable faults in Meliden and Prestatyn, power supplies were briefly interrupted for people in the local areas.
“Our engineers immediately attended to investigate and established alternative supplies to restore power in around an hour.
“This includes excavation work to rapidly facilitate repairs, which will be completed and sites cleared as soon as possible.
“We always work to keep disruption to a minimum and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
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