Vandals have caused repeated power cuts in an Oldham village after tampering with electricity generators.

The incidents happened over the weekend in Scouthead, Saddleworth as vandals switched off several generators in attempts to make away with litres of diesel.

Electricity North West, which operates the region’s power network, had to install 15 generators on its network following power cuts on both its overhead and underground network on Saturday, January 4.  

Manager speaks out

Chris Armstrong, Electricity North West’s area manager for Greater Manchester, said: “The initial power cuts need considerable repair work to be carried out by our teams.

“To ensure customers could be restored as quickly as possible, we installed generators across the network.

“Overnight, would-be thieves have tampered with the generators, switching them off and attempting to steal the diesel which caused further issues for customers in the area.

“Fortunately, the generator’s security features ensured no diesel was stolen but it’s still a dangerous thing to do and I can’t stress enough that people should stay away from the power network, and our generators.

“I’m appealing to the local community to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity in the area and ask anybody who may have any information to report it directly to the police.”

As well as carrying out repair work, Electricity North West says its engineers will be upgrading parts of the network to help provide a better quality of supply to residents and businesses.

Work is expected to be completed by Thursday, February 9, and when engineers disconnect the generators, customers will experience a short interruption while supplies are restored to the main power network.

Postcodes to be affected by powercut

A total of 132 customers will be without supply during the power cut.

Here is a full list of postcodes which will be affected by the outages:

  • OL4 3RB
  • OL4 3RE
  • OL4 3RD
  • OL4 3SE
  • OL4 3RA
  • FY8 1PW
  • OL4 3RG
  • OL4 3RU
  • OL4 3RF
  • OL4 3RH
  • OL4 3SA
  • OL4 4AD
  • OL4 3RY
  • OL4 3RZ
  • OL3 5RE
  • OL4 3RX
  • OL4 4JW
  • OL4 3SB
  • OL4 3SF
  • OL4 3SG
  • OL4 4DB

More information on what to do in a power cut can be found on Electricity North West’s website.