What a night - two very lucky ponies - b*##$¥ Scottish Power!!

LOZHUG

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Last night was the longest night ever. Got to my field as usual at 7pm to feed my horses and sort the chickens and the ducklings out, opened the gate and didn't take much notice of looking round as I am in a routine and just get on with it when my mum said what's that? To me it looked like an extension cable running across by the gate to enter my land didn't really think much of it as maybe the lady (next door) I recently bought the land off was doing something as she has part access but it was the electricity cable - it had blown down in the strong winds yesterday.

Phoned Scottish Power as the lady next door said they had already been there since 5pm but had gone to get sme equipment and gone to another site. They didn't bother to ask the lady next door for my number to gain access into the field and didn't put anything up a waring sign or tape or anything to make me think that something was up so it's lucky we didn't b*##$¥ touch the wire as it hada kick of over 12000v!!!! :(

Scottish Power were useless when I phoned and said oh they will be back and it will be fixed by 10pm. I advised it was crossing my land and that I had to get to my horses to check them and feed them but they said I would have to wait as it wouldn't be safe to go near it and it was pouring with rain. They the stupidly asked me is there any stock on the land where cables are down - my answer I don't bloomin know as I can't get passed!

3 and a half hours went buy of sitting in the feed room in the freezing cold :mad: and eventually moving to the car parked down the road as I couldn't park where I normally park as it wasn't safe with the wire but we were freezing!! Phoned again this was after 10pm they were still not interested but by this time I had noticed the pylon going into my horses field only had 2 wires instead of 3 but Scottish Power didn't tell me that that cable had come down and was lying across my horses filed!!!!!!!!! She said the pylons go from 3 wire to 2 wires surely she should know what pylon it is and how many wires there should be by their maps etc?:eek:

After sitting around in the cold for over 3 and a half hours we decided to go home as Scottish Power then told us the engineer would phone when he arrived at the field so that we could be escorted through the fields to check my horses were alive and ok and to feed them. 11:30pm the phone call came ok to go down.

Thank the lord that neither of them were hit by the wire that had come down in their field!!!!!!!

Sorry for the long post but just had to vent my frustration with Scottish Power! I am jus so very lucky that they were both ok :)

Tea and choc chip muffin for those who reach this far :D
 
If that cable was live then their response was appalling. They know full well the dangers of a live cable coming in contact with the ground especially if it is raining. I do not know how close your animals where but the whole ground could have become live which could have exposed your animals to a risk of electrocution.
I would suggest that you write to the electricity company concerned and make a formal complaint.
 
I am planning on writing a letter of complaint to them as it was ridiculous.

In my opinion they should have put some sort of notice on my gate or tape or something to bring to my attention that something was wrong and to not go any further as there was danger not just leave the site. They didn't even try and find out my number which they could have got from the lady nextdoor to advise me what was going on.

I don't know what I would have done if my horses had been electrocuted it doesn't bare thinking about :( ! But thankfully a huge amount of luck they're both fine :)

There were two seperate cables down one through my entrance and first field and the other through my horses field :(
 
I am astounded to be honest! Can't believe they didn't leave a note or put up some hazard tape. Also should have been a priority to fix! I work with HV electricity (substations rather than OHL) and HV elec can arc! You don't even need to be in contact with it for it to jump! Ok we work with275kV and 400kV but even an 11kV is extremely dangerous and coming into contact with it will NOT end well.

Definitely a strongly worded complaint and would be asking them to review their procedures for incidents like this
 
They recently had a go at us because they needed a temporary cable in, ran it across the ground in the access point to our 100 acres and yard, right in the middle of drilling and then got fed up because we were going over it with heavy machinery when it wasn't supposed to be driven over (ie not safe to!) Idiots! We presumed they could work out a yard entrance might get some driving over, and therefore it would be heavy duty cable...!
 
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