COUNCILLORS and officers will be meeting contractors working on a Padiham estate after a power cut left four homes without electricity for nearly eight and a half hours.

Coun Granville Lord wants to clear up safety arrangements made by contractors Richardson Project of Rochdale, working on Stonemoor Bottom after a worker hand digging cut the Norweb cable on Malvern Avenue.

He said: "Burnley Council were not told about this until the morning after and when the workers finished on site they left the cable surrounded by fences because Norweb had not yet arrived."

Site manager John Crossland disputed that the cable was not safe saying it had been covered up and was in the ground with barriers around. He said: "It was left in a safe condition."

Norweb apologised for its late attendance but said there had been a number of call-outs that day affecting a larger number of customers and therefore they had more priority.

Manager of building consultancy at Burnley Council Paul Shenton said: "The information given to contractor wasn't accurate - the cable was only six inches below the surface.

"The council has negotiated claims for the tenants against the contractor."

Mr Shenton said he was arranging a meeting of the Padiham and Hapton area sub-committee and the contractors.

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