THE landlord of a Launceston bar was forced to close the doors early on Monday night, after Western Power dug up the road outside.

Justin Ford, who runs Harveys in Church Street, told the 'Post' that Western Power Distribution closed the road after an electrical fault was reported at the St Luke's Hospice shop.

As part of the repair work, part of the road was dug up, and Justin and his staff had to close the doors early due to the amount of noise and dust that the work produced.

The work also had an adverse effect on the amount of customers.

Work continued until around 10.45pm, which Justin felt was too late considering there were children trying to sleep in the accommodation above.

He added: "It's inconveniencing. Western Power will not pay any compensation, even though we've got no-one coming into the pub."

A spokesman for Western Power Distri­bution confirmed that there was a fault to the St Luke's Hospice Shop in Church Street on Monday.

Engineers went along that day to do some work in the shop to enable it to have a temporary supply, but they had to excavate part of the road to find the fault and carry out the repair.

"Unfortunately the cable is in the middle of the road so we had to organise an emergency road closure to enable the guys to work safely."

Western Power engineers returned to the area on Tuesday morning and it was anticipated that the work was going to be completed that day.

The spokesman said that signs were made up to inform members of the public that businesses in Church Street were open as usual, but added: "Unfortunately as there's a fault, there's nothing planned. These are the steps that we have to take to get the shop back on a permanent supply, and to do the work as quickly as possible."