Herefordshire Council is putting in contingency plans to ensure minimal disruption to services during a planned power shutdown of its information centre on Saturday 7 June.
High voltage testing at the council's Plough Lane offices in Hereford will mean that all power systems must be closed down for up to 12 hours (from 7am to 7pm) on that day. The testing, which takes place every five years, has to be undertaken by health and safety managers across the whole Bulmers factory in Plough Lane, and is a condition of the Electricity at Work regulations as well as their lease with the council, which uses part of the site.
However, council workers will be testing its systems on Sunday 8 June, after the power is restored, to ensure services are provided as usual for the following Monday morning.
The council's email services and web site will be affected during the shutdown that weekend and so will telephone services, including extensions and published out-of-hours numbers starting with 26, although the council is seeking an agreement with BT to route all telephone numbers to the Thorn data centre in Rotherwas, where there will be a small emergency information switchboard. The plan is for the emergency out-of-hours number to be operational as normal.
It means that some services on Saturday 7 June will be affected. For example, libraries and info shops will be able to operate as normally, except their computers will not be able to offer internet access for the public as this is routed through the council's Plough Lane offices. The system that manages traffic flows, through coordination of traffic lights through the centre of Hereford, will as a consequence of the power outage revert to individual sets of lights at each junction operating as individual sets of lights. Drivers, cyclists and pedestrians are unlikely to notice any significant change in their journey time during Saturday and this system will be restored, as a priority, in good time for the Monday morning peak. The council's web site will be down during the period and other email services for schools will not be available that day.
The council has reviewed its service continuity plans to keep any disruption to a minimum for the public.