ORGANISERS have been forced to cancel a charity folk concert because of fears the venue may be without power on the night.

Southern Electric is installing a new generator at Mountbatten School and it cannot be done without turning off power supplies.

Work is planned for next week including Thursday – the day of the Folklights concert, organised by Peter and Alison Campion at the school’s Lantern Theatre, was due to be held.

The couple say that Southern Electric could not guarantee power would be restored in time for the concert at 6pm so they cancelled it.

“It’s not fair to expect our performers and audience members to come along when we’ll have no way of knowing until the last minute whether the concert could happen,” said Peter.

“It is very frustrating because we have had the date booked for nine months, two great acts lined up, and a loyal audience who help us raise money for Romsey Opportunity Group.”

A Southern Electric spokesperson said: “This work was agreed with Hampshire County Council in January. We were advised that the best time to do it was during the school’s Easter break between April 7 and April 21.

“It was agreed to carry out excavation work on April 8 and April 9 and shutdown the electricity supply on April 10. We were not aware of the concert and apologise for any inconvenience.”

Peter and Alison are now pinning their fundraising hopes on the Romsey Festival Folklights concert on July 17 when Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin, winners of the best duo award in this year’s Radio 2 Folk Awards, will play their only concert in the area.