Winds bring chaos

Newark market was cancelled on Saturday for the second time in a month because of high winds.

Many homes in the Claypole and Fernwood areas lost power after electricity lines were brought down.

Newark and Sherwood District Council’s community facilities manager, Mr Jim Besson, said gusts of up to 53mph were predicted to hit Newark.

“Wind speeds increased to such an extent that stalls began to suffer damage and therefore at 3am on Saturday morning, in the interests of safety a decision was taken to dismantle the market. All stalls were safely dismantled by 6am.”

He said all stallholders who normally traded at the Saturday market were contacted and told it had been cancelled.

Traders selling perishable goods were allowed to trade from their vehicles.

A spokesman for Central Networks said 3,867 customers in Nottinghamshire lost power over the weekend. A total of 918 customers in the Claypole and Fernwood areas lost power at about 11.40pm on Friday night.

The first 556 had their power restored within 20 minutes and by 1.05am a further 115 were restored.

The next 242 customers had their power back on by 2.15pm on Saturday which left five homes on Doddington Lane, between Claypole and Dry Doddington without power.

Four of these were on by 7.30pm. The final property had power restored at 8.45pm.

The spokesman said: “We were battered by storm force winds which knocked out some high voltage overhead cables.”

Newark firefighters were called out at 10am on Saturday to loose slates at Rowan Way, Balderton and at 2.35pm to a loose chimney on Barnbygate, Newark.