On 18/10/2012 22:04, Michael Kilpatrick wrote:
On 18/10/2012 21:01, wrote:
On Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:36:43 +0100, Michael Kilpatrick

I had to feed the boys by candlelight, and luckily we only need the
gas hob.

Michael

Good practice for the future if the predicted power shortages occur,
most youngsters would enjoy the novelty.
A whole 3 hours ,you do sound a bit precious.
Depending on the type of cables an arc down through a tree may not be
a good idea to be left occurring,stray currents can damage things
nearby that are not immediately obvious such as other cables or cause
voltage gradients in the ground nearby that can be dangerous
especially to 4 legged animals or two persons holding each other such
as a couple or as you have introduced suffering children, a mother and
child.


The point is that it is absurd to imagine that the arcing suddenly began
today or that it will be significantly worse tomorrow morning. It just
happened that someone noticed it today, not yesterday or last week, or
last month even. The idea that the problem *must* be attended to
*immediately* if someone phones at, say, 3pm is just bonkers.

It is a statutory duty, under Section 29 of the Electricity Act 1989, to
protect the public from danger arising from the generation, transmission
or supply of electricity. That means that any potentially dangerous
situation must be dealt with immediately it is known about.

As I said,
trees don't spring up overnight.

If the utility and distribution companies were doing their job, overhead
cables would be inspected every year or two. Clearly they are not.

It is the land owner's responsibility to ensure that trees do not
encroach upon overhead lines. However, as working near live overhead
lines takes specialist training, the electricity companies do regular
helicopter checks on the National Grid and will do work on trees near
lower voltage lines, if they are made aware of the need.

Colin Bignell