It was only two paragraphs but enough to make Seeboard bosses blow a fuse.

We reported power supplies to 3,000 people in East Sussex would be disrupted because overhead lines were to be modernised.

Our brief piece brought a high-voltage reply from Seeboard public relations manager Mike James.

Sparks almost flew off the paper as he said it was a shame we had sensationalised the news rather than informed readers.

We had focused on the inconvenience to customers from the refurbishment of the overhead lines serving Guestling, Icklesham, Udimore and north-east Hastings.

Why was there no mention of the benefits the £300,000 project would bring? Seeboard had specifically told us the work would greatly improve the future reliability of electricity supplies for about 10,000 people. Nor did we give readers details of how 1,500 pieces of equipment on the 25-kilometre length of line were to be replaced.

To minimise inconvenience, linesmen would be adopting hot-glove techniques so they could work on live 11,000-volt lines - gulp! - but we chose to concentrate on the "few, inevitable" disruptions of up to half an hour.

Fair points, Mike. As you say, it seems a reasonable trade-off to endure a short power cut in exchange for modern, secure overhead lines and our report should have been better balanced.

Talking of balance, good luck to the hot-glove gangs!

While we're on the subject of power to the people, the general manager of South Coast Power, John Smiley, has asked me to clarify some points arising from our report last Friday about the new Shoreham power station.

You will recall we said workers at the plant were getting ready for tests there.

One of them is a steam blow, scheduled for early next month. It is part of the commissioning stage and involves driving steam through the piping to purge the system.

We were wrong to say the large amounts of steam visible from the site would come from the power station chimney. They will be released at ground level.

And we were wrong to write about plumes of smoke. The clouds of steam will be clearly visible but they will just be comprised of ordinary water, perhaps slightly discoloured by rust.

Mr Smiley said the chimney would be put into use when the gas turbine was fired for the first time. Few emissions will be visible from the chimney once it is fully commissioned.

Now to sort out a bit of a muddle from our Opinion pages.

A letter from George Simms, of Brighton, supported the point of view that pubs and clubs who make money out of longer opening hours should contribute to the extra cost incurred by hospital A&E departments which have to deal with people who are injured or become violent after drinking too much.

But Mr Simms incorrectly attributed that viewpoint to an earlier writer, Graham Chainey, also from Brighton. Mr Chainey has asked me to point out he said no such thing in his letter, which contrasted British and Continental cultures. I hope that puts the record straight.

And let me straighten out a point from last week's column. PD Jackson, of Hove, took us to task for getting some facts wrong about the life and death of Aubrey Beardsley.

In my correction, I said Beardsley died in Monte Carlo. In fact, as Mr Jackson made clear in his letter, Beardsley died in a resort called Menton, near Monte Carlo. Sorry.