Work will re-commence this weekend to lay new electricity cables in Wilmslow town centre.
As a result of the high volume of complaints received, Cheshire East Council requested that the cable replacement work was stopped in the town centre during the summer due the level of disruption it was causing.
Speaking at the Wilmslow Town Council meeting on Monday, 16th October, Paul McGonigle from Electricity North West, confirmed that they now have permission from Cheshire East Council to continue with the work, starting on Saturday, 21st October. So work will commence to lay new cables from Bank Square down Church Street.
Explaining why the project is so urgent and didn't allow for forward planning or much notice to be given, Paul McGonigle said "We currently have 22,000 customers at risk in Wilmslow and Handforth. It is currently fed by two cables, one of the cables has faulted therefore if the other circuit faults we will lose supplies for 22,000 customers for possibly days or weeks."
The work on Church Street is expected to take two weeks during which the road will remain open but lane closures will be in place on Church Street, Swan Street and Hawthorn Lane with diversions in place.
Paul McGonigle said "The reason being if we don't do the work in the town centre then there is no point in doing the project and we have to have the work finished before our winter period because we currently have a circuit that is stressed and our heaviest load period is during the winter so months and if there is a fault the chances are that's when it will be."
Electricity North West is currently 5 weeks into a 12 week closure of Styal Road. Mr McGonigle confirmed that the work is going well and they anticipate that they will finish it early.
Engineers from Electricity North West are replacing 5km of underground electricity cables between Alderley Edge and Wilmslow. The £1.7m upgrade is replacing faulty oil-filled cables, which have been in place for around 60 years, with new environmentally-friendly and efficient cables.
They have been working in Wilmslow since July and plan to complete the project by the end of December.
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Rather a threatening scenario from Electricity NW- potentially 22k consumers without supply for an indefinite period as we approach Winter. One might hope that the “faulted” cable is also being sorted out in parallel with the new supply cable.
I've just been informed "Alderley Edge is effected however we will not be carrying out any excavation works in the public highway so there will be no disruption to local residents."
Cllr Mark Goldsmith