A fence round fishing lakes in Didcot is to be earthed because it gives people electric shocks.

Children cycling near the fence, at Ladygrove Lakes, have also suffered shocks from their handle-bars.

The town council's technical manager, Brenda Andrews, discovered that copper wire connecting the chestnut paling was receiving an electric charge from overhead power lines, which run through the Ladygrove housing estate from Didcot Power Station.

After getting several shocks from the fence herself, she summoned an engineer, who advised earthing the wire.

She said: "It felt like a sharp piece of metal going into my finger. It's enough to make you shout."

James Lineker, 11, said he was knocked off his feet when he was carrying a fishing umbrella. He said: "I was walking underneath the power lines when I got a big static shock through the pole.

"It made me jump and I fell over.

"If we ride our bikes on the path under the pylons, we get a kind of magnetic shock from the handle-bars.

"It feels as though someone is pulling you, so you have to ride to one side, on the grass."

His father, Charles, 39, said the family had moved house from Ockley Brook, in the Ladygrove estate, because he felt they were too close to the pylons.

He said: "You would think they could put these power lines underground. They're an eyesore."

Chris Mostyn, of National Grid Transco, said the electric shocks were caused by "induced current in metal running parallel with the power lines".

He said the phenomenon tended to become worse in dry, warm weather, but added there was no safety risk to the public.

He said: "People sometimes get micro-shocks. It's very similar to the sort of shock you might get off a car.

"It's a slight discharge, but nothing major."

The chestnut paling fence was erected by the town council to stop people fishing within 30m of the power lines.

A sign warns that anglers risk killing themselves if they fish too close to the pylons.