This is an incomer in Cardiff,  I think the cable and pitch filled spreader were installed in the late 1800's, in the one document above it says this is safe to work on without isolation as the DNO equipment are separate components. 

I have had customers whose front gardens were dug up and the original supply cable cut to isolate the DNO equipment to replace it along with the meter with a new supply cable run in from where the original was cut.

Plastic equipment does get condemned. 

That two-colour notice seems to be gilding the lily.

A first class example of an pipe style earth clamp retrofit onto 120 year old cable in a manner once common practice but nowadays  deprecated in case the cable collapses with a flash and a bang.

Though  if the Victorian/ Edwardian flat cap types who fitted it had ever wanted to do  earthing they would have probably  soldered straight to it while live without blinking, pausing only to lijght a pipe and make tea while the soldering iron warmed up on the brazier . Presumably nowadays the street is dug up because the upper half of that would originally have been a re-wireable fuse with asbestos pads, but this example was upgraded in about 1970 before the concerns were as strong as today ,when the risk balance has tipped in favour of carrying such things out of the house unopened in plastic bags

Did you check to see if the red iron spreader box is earthed ? I reckon the odds are at best 50/50 ;-) and also more worrying  is that  the mains fuse held in with yellow tape? Still it has new colour tails so it must be OK,

Mike

I think there is a Smart Meter.

mapj1 said:

Presumably nowadays the street is dug up because the upper half of that would originally have been a re-wireable fuse with asbestos pads

Not sure about that. It seems that removal and replacement of a service head on a live cable is not regarded as safe, whereas the jointing of a live cable is.

My chum had to pay for cutting, extending, and splicing of his service cable when the supply was moved from the construction cabinet to an outbuilding wall although in the event, we had demolished most of the cabinet and dug out the cable so all the lads had to do was to swing the board over to a convenient area of wall.

Of course we could have done that ourselves, but it would have been ever so slightly embarrassing had somebody tripped and pulled the head off the cable.

He never did get an adequate refund.

mapj1 said:

Presumably nowadays the street is dug up because the upper half of that would originally have been a re-wireable fuse with asbestos pads

It would not be a good idea to spray an asbestos pad with water whilst it is inside a live fitting.

mapj1 said:

Presumably nowadays the street is dug up because the upper half of that would originally have been a re-wireable fuse with asbestos pads

It would not be a good idea to spray an asbestos pad with water whilst it is inside a live fitting.