TELEVISION viewers throughout South-west and Central Scotland were
faced with blank screens for three and a half hours yesterday after an
electricity pylon collapsed near Newhouse, Lanarkshire, putting BBC and
Scottish Television's main transmitters at Kirk O' Shotts and Blackhill
out of action.
Screens blacked out at 3.15 and normal service was resumed shortly
after 6.50pm. Although BBC1, BBC2, and Channel 4 programmes resumed
immediately, Scottish Television's Scotland Today was plagued with
further technical difficulties.
The breakdown affected an estimated three million viewers from
Ayrshire and the South-west to the Lothians. Switchboards of both BBC
andScottish Television in Glasgow were swamped by hundreds of calls
seeking an explanation for the lack of pictures.
It was the longest recorded interruption of television programmes in
Scotland, but viewers in parts of Edinburgh and East Lothian with sets
tuned to the Burntisland transmitter in Fife were able to receive BBC1
and BBC2.
The power failure was caused by the collapse of an electricity pylon
in an area of open cast mining between Old Edinburgh Road, Newhouse, and
Newarthill.
It also left 20,000 householders in North Lanarkshire without
electricity. Main areas affected included Newhouse, Cleland, Shotts,
Harthill, and parts of Motherwell and Wishaw.
The collapse is thought to have been caused by subsidence resulting
from the recent prolonged spell of heavy rain.
The spot where the pylon came down was close to where some of the 20
employees of the mining firm were working.
Mr Brian Smith, 45, a director of Cochrane Mining Company, said: ''No
men were in any danger. We are still trying to establish what caused
it.''
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