ALTON Sports Centre was plunged into darkness last week when contractors working on the former Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital site cut through a high voltage cable.

It was the second incident of its kind to affect local people in the space of just seven weeks, the implications of which have sparked urgent calls for compensation.

Not only was it responsible for a loss of power to some 2,000 homes and businesses in the Alton area resulting, in the case of the sports centre, in substantial loss of income and customer confidence, but the power cut could have proved fatal.

ÒPeople can be killed by slicing through live underground cables,Ó stressed Southern Electric spokesman, Denis Kerby. He confirmed that his company had provided the Chawton Road Park site developer, Westbury Homes (Holdings) Ltd, with copies of plans which provided an accurate map of where the underground cables were on the site.

ÒThe company should have similar maps showing gas, telephone and water mains,Ó said Mr Kerby who believed, furthermore, that any Òresponsible contractorÓ should use a CAT system (Cable Detection Device) in order to protect its workforce and avoid potentially fatal accidents.

The incident happened on Tuesday, February 26, and, according to centre manager Sarah Hart, resulted in Alton Sports Centre being without power from around 2-45 pm to 1 am the following morning.

Ms Hart was not amused. The centre, she said, had been forced to cope with a similar incident on Wednesday, January 2, and it was Òhugely disruptiveÓ.

As before the centreÕs computers went down, leaving staff with no access to customer records, and the electronic switchboard was Òoff airÓ.

They had hundreds of customers to try and notify using mobile phones and the one emergency telephone operating on site, but with no records to fall back on it proved a somewhat futile exercise.

ÒWe manned reception but customers were turning up to find the centre in darkness,Ó said Ms Hart who pointed out that late afternoon and evening was the busiest time for the centre with courses starting at 4 pm. ÒWe had childrenÕs swimming classes and fitness classes. Hundreds of people had their evening activity ruined.Ó

One of the major victims was the badminton club which was due to hold its yearly club championships on that evening and had to cancel.

According to the manager, the centre was provided with one back-up generator to maintain the level of chlorine in the swimming pool which is electronically controlled and would have fallen below regulatory levels. Other than that it had emergency lighting but not enough to play sport or to open the pool.

Sarah Hart calculates losses of around £2,000 for each afternoon/evening session lost and says she will be claiming compensation.

But, she was keen to stress: ÒIt is not just about the money. This sort of disruption to customers is not acceptable unless it is due to a freak accident. This is the second time the Westbury Homes contractors have been responsible for cutting through power cables - they should be CATS scanning the ground. If they donÕt it must surely constitute a health and safety risk.Ó

Southern Electric is taking an equally strong stand. According to Denis Kerby his company takes an extremely dim view of third-party damage to the network, especially when it places peopleÕs lives at risk.

ÒIn incidents such as this we send our engineers in to first make sure the site is safe and then to get as many people as possible back on line by switching supplies over to other parts of the network,Ó he explained.

In this particular case Alton Community Hospital would have been number one priority, closely followed by local homes but, because it was so close to the source, Alton Sports Centre had to wait for repairs to be carried out. It had not, however, been possible to provide the number of emergency generators required to re-open the centre before that time.

Because incidents like this tended to show Southern Electricity in a bad light, Mr Kerby confirmed that it too would be seeking compensation and would not be passing the cost of repairs on to its customers who, it believed, had suffered enough at the hands of the Treloar Hospital site contractors.

In a statement on behalf of Westbury Homes (Holdings) Limited, regional project manager Bryan Leeming said: ÒWestbury Homes is in the process of demolishing the old redundant part of Treloar Hospital.

ÒIt is regrettable that while all reasonable care has been taken to avoid existing services, the electric service has been disrupted.

ÒWestbury Homes is in dialogue with Southern Electric and the site contractor, in an attempt to avoid this matter re-occurring.Ó