THE lives of elderly and vulnerable residents in Innerleithen are being put at risk by recurring power cuts, according to the town’s community council chairman.

On Monday, April 2, Marshall Douglas also revealed that several residents had contacted the community council’s Facebook page to express their frustration and concerns over the situation.

He said: “The power outages, as short as they are, could pose a risk to the lives of the elderly and vulnerable in Innerleithen.

“When the power is off, any life-saving equipment or machinery which is needed to help someone may not work, and in turn, this may have to be reset once the electricity supply is restored.

“The disruption can also cause significant inconvenience to local businesses.”

One resident, who did not wish to be named, said there had been five outages in the town since January. They said: “Since moving to the town several years ago, I have never lived anywhere with so many power cuts. Even though they may last any time between a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes, it is a major inconvenience.

“Once the power comes back on, I have to go around all the electricals in my home, such as the cooker and burglar alarm, and reset everything.”

Earlier this year, the Peeblesshire News revealed that some houses in the town lost power around 27 times in 2017, and suffered three power cuts in the space of ten days in January.

Scottish Power has promised Innerleithen residents that action will be taken to improve reliability.

A spokesperson for SP Energy Networks told us: “We are aware of performance issues in the Innerleithen area which we are working to try and rectify and improve reliability in the short and longer term.

“The interruptions mainly last for a few seconds and form part of the network’s safety systems which is designed to power off then on when either wind-born debris or birds strike the overhead lines.

“This system prevents longer faults that would require engineers to attend.

“We are aware, however, that this has been exacerbated recently by several spells of bad weather and the rural nature of the power lines which deliver supplies to the town and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”