THE curse of power cuts in Winchester city centre should be much less likely following investment by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks.

The SSEN project to boost the resilience of the electricity infrastructure for homes and businesses in Winchester has now been completed.

Costing £1.3 million, the programme was designed to strengthen power supplies.

Starting in October 2017, the works saw the installation of over 1.9km of new underground cable, 13 link boxes and the transfer of 81 existing services to the new section of infrastructure; all carried out in stages along a route taking in Jewry Street, the High Street and other adjacent roads.

A spokesman for Greens Bar and Kitchen, in Jewry Street, said: “Initially, we did have concerns about how these works would affect ourselves and other local businesses near to the areas that Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) were proposing to work on, especially around busy times during weekends and the festive season.

“Being able to speak to the project team and build an understanding of their needs to carry out the upgrade works, along with our needs as a business – and our customers’ expectations - meant that we were able to work together to accommodate both schedules with minimum disruption to our customers and staff.”

Kevin Cracknell, SSEN’s network upgrades manager, said: “It was important to both SSEN and Hampshire County Council that these works were carried out sensitively to accommodate the varying needs of our customers in Winchester.

“In addition to letter drops and engagement events, we listened to the concerns of local businesses and – wherever possible – carried out excavation works near their premises either during the night or outside of their usual operating times.”

“This now ensures the best possible service to customers.”