A BIRD has today been identified as the cause of an electricity failure which left hundreds of homes without power.The blackout hit 571 homes in the Claydon and Blakenham area at teatime on Sunday after the bird - believed to be a goose - flew into overhead wires at Baylham.

A BIRD has today been identified as the cause of an electricity failure which left hundreds of homes without power.

The blackout hit 571 homes in the Claydon and Blakenham area at teatime on Sunday after the bird - believed to be a goose - flew into overhead wires at Baylham.

Most homes were reconnected within little over an hour - but a few homes were blacked out until 10.40pm.

A spokeswoman for EDF Energy said this was only the second occasion that power had been knocked out by a bird strike in the Ipswich area over the last 12 months.

She said: “EDF Energy would like to apologise to all our customers for the inconvenience caused by this incident.”

But while a bird strike has been blamed for plunging Claydon and Blakenham into darkness on Sunday, the geese have been cleared of any involvement in the rail chaos earlier in the week.

News about the problems with the power supply prompted some Claydon residents to speculate that a bird strike could have caused the problems with the overhead wires which led to train cancellations and delays last Thursday and Friday.

However engineers from Network Rail and train operator 'one' have ruled out this as a cause for the problems.

Stuart Buss, from Network Rail, said: “We had been looking at three possible causes for the failure at Claydon - a failure with the wire, the train equipment, or an outside intervention like a bird strike or vandalism.

“We have ruled out the third possible cause - if it was a bird strike we would, to be honest, be able to tell straight away because we'd find the dead creature.

“As it is we still don't know if the problem was caused by the train or the wire, and our engineers are still investigating that.”

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www.edfenergy.co.uk

www.networkrail.co.uk