LENGTHY power cuts should soon be a thing of the past in Swaledale and Wensleydale, thanks to a five-year plan to improve electricity supplies.

Northern Electric Distribution has already started upgrading power lines and circuitry in the two dales and in the Richmond and Catterick areas.

Undergrounding of cables at Reeth in Swaledale and Aysgarth in Wensleydale has already gone ahead in partnership with the Yorkshire Dales millennium trust. A similar project at Fremington is about the begin.

Poles carrying low voltage overhead lines around several villages have been strengthened and a replacement 30km line between the sub-station at Wensley and Carperby has been completed.

Work still to be carried out includes replacing the line between Richmond and Gunnerside, due to start next April after being postponed this year because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

New cable between Richmond and the Teesside link should prevent circuit losses in Swaledale in the event of a fault.

In Wensleydale, 52km of overhead lines will be refurbished in the next three years and Leyburn town centre will be transferred on to underground cable to improve the supply and prevent problems caused when branches and other objects are blown on to overhead lines.

Mr Ray Ellison, a senior manager from NEDL, said: "We aim to reduce the number of supply interruptions in the dales by introducing new technology and reducing the length of circuitry.

"A lot of problems in overhead networks are caused by tree branches and one of the things we are doing is ensuring the trees are cut back from the lines."

Variations in voltage, which occurred particularly in the more rural areas, would also be rectified by the improvement project.

He was one of four NEDL senior managers who attended a meeting of Richmondshire planning committee on Tuesday to update the district council on work.

The company said it was keen to work closely with the planning authority on a number of aspects, including reducing the environmental impact of its own developments.