THOUSANDS of homes and businesses across North Yorkshire were left without the use of a telephone following technical problems.

And a power cut affected about 40,000 homes across Ryedale. The phone chaos was caused by a faulty computer processor in Leeds. The areas worst hit by the phone problems included Clifton, Dringhouses, Dunnington, Sheriff Hutton, Malton, Riccall, Hemingbrough, Wheldrake, Cawood, and Easingwold, as well as parts of Bradford. Phone lines were hit between 4.20pm and 5.35pm yesterday.

A spokeswoman for British Telecom said: "We estimate that about 73,000 homes and businesses suffered problems.

"We worked round-the-clock to put it right, and the matter is still being investigated. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience." Lee Bell, who works for Ged Bell's Family Butchers, in Middlethorpe Grove, Dringhouses, said: "My mother was apparently trying to get through for ages but it was engaged. Hopefully, no-one was trying to get through with an order."

Towns and villages across Ryedale were brought to a standstill after a major power cut affected more than 40,000 homes.

electricity supplies were cut shortly before 4pm, with power lost for up to 20 minutes in some areas. Businesses in Malton ground to a halt as staff were unable to use tills and computers in darkened premises. Sandra Laws, from the town's Cyber Caf, said: "I had to spend more than an hour reconnecting everything because the system went down."

Police officers had to redirect traffic in the centre of Malton when traffic light systems failed to come back on, causing a queue of traffic as people left work.

Generators were needed at Safeways in Malton to ensure the store stayed open.

A spokeswoman from electricity suppliers NEDL said: "Supplies were lost to approximately 40,000 customers. Engineers are still investigating the cause."

Updated: 10:55 Tuesday, January 08, 2002