BUSINESSES in Birmingham city centre were brought to a standstill as a massive power cut blacked out thousands of shops and offices – some for more than three hours.
The cut was the third major disruption to affect the city in a week following the road closures for the Conservative Party Conference and a man threatening to jump from a bridge at Paradise Circus who was involved with a tense stand-off with police for 29 hours.
Power went off around 12.20pm yesterday and supplier Central Networks said the fault – due to an underground cable problem – affected more than 21,000 properties.
Some firms escaped lightly, such as those in the Jewellery Quarter, whose power was restored in around 10 minutes. However, others in the Newhall Street, Cornwall Street area in the heart of the Colmore business district were not so lucky and they remained without power until almost 3.30pm.
Many office workers faced the prospect of an extended lunch hour while others abandoned any attempts to carry and returned home to work.
Central Networks, which apologised for the fault, restored power gradually by switching customers to other parts of the electricity network.
Staff at transport body Centro in Summer Lane were affected, as was Lloyd House at Colmore Circus, headquarters of West Midlands Police, however, emergency generators kicked in there and staff continued to work as normal.
Central Networks said the vast majority of its customers had supplies restored by 12.37pm, however, more than 230 properties, including ones in Newhall Street, Cornwall Street and Victoria Square, were still without power at 2.20pm, while a further 35 were still not reconnected an hour later.
