THE OWNER of a petting farm says his business could be forced to shut down if ‘devastating’ power cuts continue.

Wellybobs owner Heath Kershaw said Electricity NorthWest shut the power off to the petting farm for the seventh time in a year yesterday in order perform maintenance work.

He said: “We have no option but to close for the day. For a business that relies on weekend and school holiday trade its devastating.

“In terms of profits we are losing around £500 a time.

“Worse still we are inconveniencing our customers because even though we advertise that we will be closed we still have people who come along.

“It’s not fair on our staff as a lot of them are part-time and lose out on a day's work.

“We have to make special provisions for the exotic animals and we have emergency procedures for the reptiles, so even when we’re closed we have to be in to care for the animals. If this carries on there will be no point running the business.”

A spokesman for Electricity North West, said: “We have carried out essential work on the power network in Darwen, Lancashire to ensure local customers receive a reliable supply of power.

“To allow our engineers to carry out the work safely we organised planned power shutdowns in the area. There have been four planned shutdowns between January and October and we notified customers in advance of the work taking place.

“The work has included a £80,000 investment in upgrading the local power network, maintenance work to cut back trees which have grown close to overhead power lines and also a new electricity connection.”

Mr Kershaw said: “Fair enough, they usually send us a letter about a week before, but we have parties that are booked months in advance.

“Last time they sent us a text at 9am on the day to say it wasn’t going to be switched off, by which point we’d already advertised that we would be closed.

“We are just a small fish in a big pond, that’s the way the world is now.”

Mr Kershaw said he has spoken with his local councillor, Julie Slater, who discussed it with the council on his behalf.

Cllr Slater said: "I advised Mr Kershaw that the council would be unable to help in this matter as it is an issue with the energy supplier.

“I understand it is difficult for him as he is a small business.

“He could approach his MP and discuss setting up a support network for small businesses affected by power cuts.”