Chris Black writes:
I was up in Rayleigh Town Centre this afternoon. First thing I noticed was that the Castle Road Car park was very nearly full, which you’d hope it would be , with free parking! However I still had to stop one person from trying to pay – he hadn’t read the stickers.
There was still a partial power cut in part of the High Street- in thePhones 4 You / Martins / Boots/ Rayleigh Lanes / Hudsons Barbers area. Apparently there was a complete power failure there on Friday afternoon, which meant some businesses had had to close completely. Today there was single phase power, but not triple phase, which meant that the shops had some lighting but couldn’t operate a lot of equipment. So to buy some shaving cream in Boots I had to be escorted by a staff member to the shelf, and he had to write down the amount and the bar code. Cash only. It must be very very disappointing for some businesses.
However one shopowner I spoke in a different part of the High Street had enjoyed a really good Christmas season.
And finally many thanks to the shop assistant in one shop who directed me to a competitor because they didn’t have the item I wanted in stock! Just like a scene from the classic movie “Miracle On 34th Street”, when Santa Claus in Macy’s Department Store tells people where they get stuff from rival stores….
The Echo picked up on our story here:
http://www.southendstandard.co.uk/news/echo/10126934.Businesses_left_without_electric_after_powercut_in_Rayleigh/?ref=nt