A sudden closure of the Sainsbury’s Superstore on Limborough Road, Wantage, caused surprise and some concern amongst shoppers yesterday afternoon. Customers experienced confusion as they were asked to leave the store without any initial explanation for the temporary closure.
One shopper, preferring to remain anonymous, described the situation: “Sainsbury’s is closed. They’ve escorted everyone out but we are unsure why.”
In contrast, another customer, Linda Bollad, offered more clarity: “There was a power cut, and lots of shops had to close, including Waitrose. No card machines are working, and there were no lights.”
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson later confirmed the issue, stating, “Our Wantage store was closed for half an hour yesterday afternoon due to a power cut in the local area. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Widespread Power Cut in Wantage
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), the electricity provider for the region, confirmed a fault that affected many homes and businesses across Wantage.
According to SSEN, “We were alerted to a fault on power supplies affecting 732 customers in Wantage on Tuesday, November 26, at 3.35 pm. This issue temporarily left a significant portion of the town without power.”
SSEN engineers responded promptly and restored power for most affected customers within an hour of the cut. “Engineers were able to quickly and safely restore power to all but 112 customers who were reconnected at 7.28 pm,” an SSEN representative reported.
Suspected Water Damage as the Cause
Although investigations are still ongoing, SSEN suspects that recent heavy rainfall and flooding may have caused water damage to an underground cable, leading to the outage.
The spokesperson acknowledged the tough conditions, stating, “SSEN would like to thank its customers in Wantage for their patience while engineers worked to safely reinstate their power supplies.”
Out of the 732 affected households, 620 had their power restored quickly, with the remaining homes back online by 7.28 pm.
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