A POWER cut caused chaos in High Wycombe town centre on Friday and brought a hi-tech conference to a standstill.>

Power cuts bring chaos to the town

Picture shows Angella Hutchinson burning a candle

A POWER cut caused chaos in High Wycombe town centre on Friday and brought a hi-tech conference to a standstill.

Delegates at a Cellnet conference in Wycombe Swan Town Hall had to be moved during the power cut which started about 9.15am and lasted more than an hour.

Wycombe Swan duty manager, Roger Keele, said: "All the delegates for the conference arrived and we had to transfer them from the Town Hall to the Oak Room where there was a bit of light.

"Rather than having hi-tech graphics, they had to have a flip chart and pen."

W H Smith, in the High Street issued handwritten receipts after tills failed. Dixons closed its doors.

High Street photographic firm, Snappy Snaps, lost power to all its photo processing equipment and tills.

Owner Dennis Ford said: "We can't do anything.

"I would have thought in this day and age that they would be able to dig a road without hitting a power cable."

Mr Ford added: "I hope the county council is going to compensate for it."

The traffic lights in Queen Victoria Road failed, and the Wycombe District Council offices and the police station were also without power.

The Law Court computers in Easton Street were affected as were businesses in Castle Street.

A Southern Electric spokesman said: "We had a high voltage fault which affected 250 customers in the first instance.

"We repaired this by 10am, but by then we had received reports of a second fault, caused by a contractor hitting one of our cables."

The spokesman advised those seeking compensation not to approach the district council, but to apply in writing to Southern Electric at the address shown on their bills.

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