Powercut causes Easter misery in Bamburgh

The popular holiday destination was without electricity for several hours from 3pm on Saturday, frustrating visitors, residents and businesses.

Cllr Guy Renner-Thompson, Bamburgh ward member on Northumberland County Council, said: "The weather was perfect, and the village was rammed with visitors.

"The vast majority of payments are now made on card machines, which don't work when the power’s out.

"The cut cost businesses in Bamburgh thousands and thousands of pounds in lost takings but there is no compensation available. It's not acceptable."

Northern Powergrid state that, in normal weather, compensation is only available to customers cut off for 12 hours or more.

A spokesperson for Northern Powergrid said: “On Saturday 30 March we were alerted to a low hanging overhead power line which required a safety interruption, affecting 644 customers.

“Our engineers attended site as swiftly as possible to investigate and repair the power line, and we were able to restore power to 455 customers within three hours. All remaining customers were restored by 10.33pm.

“We thank our customers for their patience while our teams worked hard to restore power and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“Whilst we are not expecting any further disruption, our teams are conducting additional patrols to check the condition of our network.”