Central Networks owned and operated around 84,000km of underground cable and so we set up CableSafe to help provide help and advice to homeowners and contractors, even arranging a visit to locate and mark up their cables for them.

We realised that there was a need to provide the customer with a record of the advice given so we produced a leaflet to give guidance on how to dig safely in order to avoid any buried cables, and also what to do in an emergency if a cable is accidentally damaged.

Each year we attended child safety events run by police and local authorities to teach 9- to 11-year-olds about the dangers associated with electricity.

Whereas we’ve previously used external providers to deliver our child safety messages, 2010 saw us use our own employees. Around 50 volunteers received training in the kind of messages we need to deliver and the best way to engage youngsters.

Although our safety message has mainly been targeted at 9 to 11-year olds in the past, we were approached by an author to develop a safety book for five-year-olds in which we enthusiastically agreed to take part.

‘A Nasty Shock’ is a picture book based around a rabbit which helps educate children about the dangers of electricity inside and outside the home. We sent a copy of the book free of charge to the 3,433 primary schools within our distribution area.

Farming and Countryside Education (FACE) is a registered charity which aims to educate children and young people about food and farming in a sustainable countryside. Part of their programme includes farm visits during which the children are taught how to carry out risk assessments. With our help the programme now includes danger from overhead power lines, particularly if there are fishing pools or waterways on the premises.

Angling is a highly popular pastime in the UK, but accidental contact between fishing rods and overhead power lines can prove fatal. In 2010, we attended two large events, the Go Fishing Show (incorporating the Fish-o-mania Finals) at Newcastle-Under-Lyme, and the CLA Game Fair at Alcester. At both events we gave out copies of our Angling Safety leaflet to fishermen of all ages.

2010 was the second year of our partnership with Derbyshire Police and Neighbourhood Watch, called "Substation Watch". The scheme encourages people living close to a substation to keep an eye on it and to report any problems or issues. Each member was given a card with the emergency telephone contact number which they are asked to keep by the phone.

We also worked closely with Crimestoppers, which offers a reward for information leading to the successful prosecution and conviction of those responsible for copper theft from our substations. Individual watches can apply for grants of £50 and we awarded three during 2010.

This primarily focused on targeting criminals who steal copper from electricity substations, but equally on more innocent issues like children playing around substations. With more than 94,000 substations across central England, this is something we took extremely seriously. We used our Power Discovery Zone educational package when we toured schools, educating thousands of schoolchildren every year.

Our doorstep crime prevention campaign had gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2007. We have a duty of care to protect the welfare of our customers from potential bogus callers posing as utility workers.

Our “There’s No Such Thing As The Electricity Board” campaign aimed to raise awareness amongst our customers that they should be suspicious of anyone purporting to work for the Electricity Board. We were active members of the Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Doorstep Crime Prevention Partnerships and our leaflet and door stickers promoting safety awareness have proved to be of huge benefit, with over 30,000 requested during the past three years.