More power cuts have hit properties in Ewell Village as the flooding situation there shows no sign of improving.

Flooding remains outside Bourne Hall Park in the High Street and there are now fears a large tree, affected by the bad weather, could crash down on to Spring Street.

Eighteen properties near the flooding, who suffered a power cut on Wendesday, lost power again yesterday afternoon, with engineers working through the night to restore power to all bar one of them.

Brian Angus, chairman of Ewell Village Residents’ Association, said: "The situation in Ewell worsened overnight with several properties suffering power cuts and the electricity company excavating the High Street close to the flooded area.

"Although the key players aren't talking to me directly they are saying ‘We must leave the waters levels to lower naturally otherwise more serious problems would be caused downstream’."

Mr Angus, who was standing by sandbags at the Samaritans Central Office, Upper Mill, in Kingston Road, at 9.30am this morning, told the Epsom Guardian: "It’s not your normal flooding.

"We are in an area of springs and all the springs lag behind the rainfall for several months. Therefore I don’t think standing around waiting for flood water to go down will work.

"The sluices out of Bourne Hall lake need to be lowered."

Pensioner William Morgan, from Garbrand Walk, in Ewell Village, said that a 50 ft sequoia tree in his garden could fall at any time but the council had not yet given permission to cut it down.

Yesterday Mr Morgan said: "I don’t understand the council's attitude because it’s dangerous. If it does come down it could hit a car or children going past to school.

"We are worried sick about it. I was up soon after four because I couldn’t sleep."

In an email to officers at Epsom Council, Mr Morgan said he had sought help from a arboriculturalist who inspected the tree and called the council on Wednesday.

Mr Morgan said: "He has told me that you said that you should, may, might (I don't know what) be able to come to look at the tree 'in a week or so'."

Today he said: "The council have been in touch with me and said they are going to get the officers around here as soon as possible."

A council spokesman said they had been contacted about a tree at the property in a conservation area of Ewell Village.

But he said: "This tree has a pronounced lean this has developed over several years, the owner has asked the tree inspector to look at this tree.

"The tree surgeon employed by the resident has stated that this tree shows no sign of falling."

A UK Power Networks spokesman apologised to the owners of 18 properties in the Market Parade area who had a power failure at 2.40pm yesterday.

The same properties endured a four-hour power cut on Wednesday.

He said: "Our engineers managed to restore supplies to 17 of the customers at 3am today. This was done by excavating the faulty section of underground cable and isolating it from the rest of the network.

"Investigations and repairs are under way to ensure the remaining customer has power again as soon as possible.

"The problems have been caused by an intermittent fault on our low-voltage underground network which were initially difficult to pinpoint.

"This can occur when heat produced at the time of the fault reseals the cable, meaning that no permanent fault is evident."

 

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