Locals in a UK village have hit out after a group of travellers reportedly hooked up their illegal camp to the electricity grid. The alleged incident took place just five days before a widespread power outage in the area.It’s reported that the village of Tilsworth, in Bedfordshire, now has “more travellers than locals”. A large caravan park was built without permission last month, before Central Bedfordshire Council secured a temporary notice to stop all construction on Tuesday, June 16. However, angry locals claim work to build the camp continued, with the local energy operator now revealing it is investigating a suspected illegal connection at the site on June 19. The alleged illegal electricity extraction came five days before the village was hit by an outage on June 24.It is illegal to connect to the electricity grid without permission to extract power. Unregulated extraction can pose safety risks, such as electric shocks and fires, as well as overload local transformers, which can cause sudden power cuts.As reported by the Daily Mail, locals claimed the travellers were responsible for the power cut while UK Power Networks said the issue “was caused by a fault on the overhead network and is not believed to be linked to the site”.They said: “We were advised on June 19 of a possible unauthorised electricity connection at a site in Dunstable Road, Tilsworth,’ a spokesman said.”While our network is currently operating normally, our engineers are working closely with police regarding this and an adjacent site and have been liaising to co-ordinate visit dates.”During the outage, locals were sent a text which read: “We are aware of an unexpected power cut in LU7. We didn’t know this was going to happen, so providing prior notice wasn’t possible, but we are working to get the lights back on as quickly as we can.”The camp has reportedly expanded over the last month (Image: BBC)Although the travellers are banned from developing their camp any further, residents in the area insist that work has continued. They are calling on the council to do more to stop them.One said: “It’s a disgrace. The council issued the stop notice, but the work has continued since then.”They do whatever they want and get away with it. They managed to connect to the power network, and this took out the village for about an hour. It’s a scandal.”There are reportedly 19 motorhomes and caravans on the new site, as well as 70 on the existing encampment. Locals in the village, which has around 140 homes, now say they are outnumbered.One reported some of the travellers “riding bikes on the site until very late”. They added that they “create such a lot of noise” while a second said the group “do as they please”.Locals were hit by a power outage just five days after the travellers allegedly hooked up to the gri (Image: Getty)A council spokesman said: “The Council is aware of reports of an unauthorised connection to the electricity infrastructure, and we’ve notified UK Power Networks as the relevant utility provider.”Any investigation into the cause of the outage is a matter for UK Power Networks. We understand the unauthorised caravan site has caused concerns for residents in Tilsworth.”Officers have responded quickly and treated this as a priority. The Council must follow the correct legal process and ensure any formal action is supported by evidence.”A Temporary Stop Notice was served on Tuesday, June 16, requiring all further construction work to cease. The Council obtained a High Court injunction on July 3 for this site.”
Fury in UK village as travellers ‘illegally hook up their camp to electricity grid’ – AOL
