Some information services will be affected by its data centre shutdown

Herefordshire Council has warned that some services provided on Saturday 7 June will be affected by a planned power shutdown of its information services that day.

The council has put in contingency plans to minimise disruption and although its weekend emergency telephone service will be operating, its web site and email services for its customer facilities will be out of action. Info centres, libraries and all council services will be open as usual.

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) this Saturday. 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.

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 power shutdown affects only the council's Plough Lane premises - not any other building in Hereford.

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 and some information, which sits on those computers, may not be available in all locations to help with all customer enquiries. Urgent planning enquiries will also not be available from 3pm the previous Friday (6 June 2008) and all day Saturday.

"For the majority of people there will be little impact on the service they receive on Saturday", said the council's head of information and communication technology Geoff Cole. "But we apologise for any disruption to service. We are doing all we can to minimise any inconvenience".