At the point the DNO do get involved, it may be quite a palarvar - following a few nasty flash and pop incidents with metal heads and older cables, and the asbestos question, some DNOs will no longer even open them. Instead, the preference is to dig up the road or garden, disconnect the main cable, cut the head off and then rejoint, maybe with a length of new cable into the property.

If you were feeling rebellious and needed to move things on, you could get them to come and look very quickly by calling and saying you thought you could smell hot tar,..
Mike

mapj1 said:

If you were feeling rebellious and needed to move things on, you could get them to come and look very quickly by calling and saying you thought you could smell hot tar,..

Or, could I see evidence of woodworm on the back-board?

mapj1 said:

If you were feeling rebellious and needed to move things on, you could get them to come and look very quickly by calling and saying you thought you could smell hot tar,..

Or, could I see evidence of woodworm on the back-board?

Serious woodworm there!

woodworm are a slower moving threat than suspected overheating and a fire risk

The problem with woodworm is only when trying to isolate, when the fuse is a bit stiff in its holder and to remove it requires someone pulling like a demented gorilla, when instead of the fuse being pulled out,  and the supply safely isolated, the board breaks and the whole lot falls off the wall, in the worst case straining the lead clad paper insulated cable beyond its safe curvature limit  in a way that causes a dead short  cross the unfused supply....

Rare,  but apparently not totally unknown,.Woodworm or asbestos may get them to refuse to touch it  to fit a smart meter, overheating on the other hand will get them to inspect, and probably change, the service head probably un-opened, as soon as possible.

It is however a tactic to use with care if it really does not look like it might have been hot..

Mike