Updated 12 December 2022

Overnight we had the first light dusting of snow and as normal we took the dog for his morning walk, when we got outside my house I noticed something odd had happened to the pavement.

Now it didn’t take a genius to work out that something is getting warm under the pavement and melting the snow, and it looks like, at some point in time, that the area had been dug up before for some reason.

Having way too much time on my hands, I looked at electrical cable plans for my estate, and their it was, a significant cable joint:

Checking online, the network maintainer is UK Power Networks, telephone 0800 056 5866.

I gave them a quick call to let them know of the issue, the representative said they would send someone out to check it.

Why is it important to report this?

The simple answer is if the cable joint fails, it could be a catastrophic failure with the potential to cause harm or damage, or on a more basic level, result in a power outage until the joint is excavated and repaired.

Both can be avoided by early intervention, as an aside, I’ve noticed quite a few cable joints failing and my presumption is that this is due to the increase in Electric Vehicle charging and this will only be exacerbated by the colder weather as more and more heaters get switched on, (if we can afford it!!).