HERE in Alderbury we have been subject to two outages during the past week, both of some 15-hour duration.

The first, which was very local and affected few of us, was caused by a branch falling across a line which necessitated the attendance of the fire brigade as well as engineers from Southern Electric Power Distribution (based in Perth Scotland, this is the old SEB).

The problem when the engineers eventually arrived was easily identified, but then a cherry picker van had to be summoned, which took three hours. The problem was then repaired very quickly.

Not so long ago the SEB operated teams who lopped trees that threatened supply and issued land owners with requests to look after those on their property, but according to the repair team who attended our incident these teams no longer exist and nature takes its course.

On Christmas Eve a similar but more serious incident resulted in the whole of Alderbury and Whaddon being without power until mid-afternoon.

Obviously the economic results of these supply failures are considerable, and the social cost to the old and housebound incalculable.

Trees will fall; this is predictable, so when will this simple lesson be learned and acted upon by our northern-based distribution company, saving themselves a lot of money and us the customer considerable anxiety?

David Sargent, Alderbury