ASSURANCES were given this week that the misery experienced by Ettrick residents, who have suffered no fewer than 14 power cuts in recent months, will soon be over, writes Andrew Keddie.
They were issued at a meeting in the Boston Hall attended by representatives of Scottish Power, local forestry interests and more than 20 concerned householders.
As revealed in The Wee Paper, homes on the Tushielaw to Roberton road have been affected by falling trees crashing onto the power line at West Buccleuch.
Tuesday’s meeting was told that all these properties have now been supplied with generators and that timber extraction is well under way and should be completed by Februaery 23.
It also emerged that the reason other Ettrick residents further up the valley have been enduring similar power cuts was the “erratic behaviour” of the ironically-named “intelligent” switching unit at Tushielaw Farm. This fault had now been identified and repair work would start immediately.
Scottish Power also gave a commitment that compensation for all affected households would be issued automatically..
The forestry owners, through their agent, also assured the hall that the replanting work would avoid commercial trees being grown so close to power lines in future on this and their other forests.
The main reason behind the problems that arose at West Buccleuch was the sudden cancellation of the planned generators, which should have allowed the forestry clearance to be completed.
This was a decision taken by Scottish Power as a result of a serious pollution incident caused by similar generators at The Gair in Ettrick, which led to a major review by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
The use of these generators was suspended and a tendering exercise for a new supplier of a safer type of generator started. The delay meant Scottish Power was unable to supply generators for this type of work for several months.
Selkirkshire councillor Vicky Davidson, who arranged the meeting, told The Wee Paper: “It is a sorry tale by a major utility company but I think Ettrick residents welcomed the fact that the representatives had travelled to Ettrick to explain first-hand what went wrong, will issue compensation automatically and have already started work to remedy the faulty switching unit which caused unnecessary knock on power cuts.”
And the councillor added: “I think it is always useful for utility suppliers to meet their customers and particularly when this level of disruption has been experienced.
“There was also recognition by the residents of the efforts of the linesmen working in extreme and dangerous conditions in the forest to reconnect them every time the line was broken”