Power restored to Yarmouth area

Power has been restored to thousands of people in the Great Yarmouth area after a power cut knocked out electricity supplies today.

Areas affected included Great Yarmouth, Acle, Martham, Caister and Gorleston, where the James Paget Hospital was forced to briefly use back up supplies.

Traffic lights were down and some shops and banks were forced to close as a result of the power failure which happened at 12.04pm.

Many other businesses including offices and tourist attractions along the Golden Mile have also been hit.

The Market Gates Shopping Centre was closed.

It is not clear what has caused the shortage it affected the main high voltage power lines and is not believed to be weather related.

Power was restored to all customers by 2.20pm.

Jonathan Newman, town centre partnership manager, said a long power failure was bad news for traders.

“It's a busy Monday and a lot of shops will be disappointed,” he said.

EDF spokeswoman Tracey Sparling said both Great Yarmouth and the surrounding villages have been affected.

“We are currently investigating the cause of the incident and we would like to apologise to our customers,” she said. “We know it's a problem with our high voltage network which has affected a sub-station and other equipment and it's going to take some time to investigate.”

A spokesman for James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We have our own emergency power supply to sustain all essential services and functions in the Trust if a power cut occurs.

“Our normal power supply was inactive for just a few seconds today and has now been restored to full working order - it's business as usual.

“We have not received any initial reports of cancelled patient appointments or procedures.”

A Yarmouth coastguard spokesman said a back-up supply meant there was no interruption to operations.