Businesses and visitors to Falmouth town centre are facing up to three years of disruption when work starts in the new year on replacing the main underground power cables.

Representatives of Western Power Distribution (WPD) attended a meeting of the Association of Falmouth Traders yesterday to outline the work that needs to be done and to stress their desire to liaise with businesses and residents to try to minimise the impact of that work.

The work will be carried out in phases, with the first of these expected to start in January. Overall the work will involve excavating the middle of the road from the start of Market Street down to Trago Mills, with soundproof fencing installed to reduce the noise of the work.

Among the first projects to be undertaken will be the installation of a new sub-station, possibly in Church Street car park, to replace the one currently outside Marks and Spencer in Market Street.

Jon Nesbitt, area manager for WPD, said: "Over the last six months our circuits have not been performing particularly well and a number of businesses have been affected by outages. We have identified that a lot of our plant is not in the best condition."

He added that while the work is not essential at this stage, there will be a need to replace the cables in the future so the decision was made to carry out of the work before the problems escalate.

"This is not a decision we have taken lightly, it is a huge capital investment for us," added Mr Nesbitt. "It is not great customer service for us to keep interrupting supplies."

Discussions over the works' programme are at a very early stage, but it is anticipated that the first phase will take place in January and could last anything from four to 12 weeks. As the road will be dug up, the streets will have to be closed to traffic although pedestrian access will be maintained throughout.

As the work cannot be completed within that time, it will mean be the contractors will clear the site, certainly by Easter, and will not return until the following January, and possibly even the one after that. WPD will work with highways to come up with a way for deliveries to reach businesses.

The power company will also be informing residents living above the shops of their plans as they are likely to be affected by noise and disruption. Public meetings are planned once more details have been confirmed.

There was a mixed reaction from traders at yesterday's meeting. Jerome Browne, of Marks and Spencer, said: "It has to be done. What we want as traders is a commitment that it will be a two-and-a-half year programme and it doesn't turn into the Temple roadworks."

Chris Clark, from Atlantis Jewels in Church Street, was less forgiving and wanted to know if compensation would be available to businesses to make up for the potential loss of trade. "If you are shutting the road for four weeks, I may as well give you my keys now," he said.