Blackout

CANDLELIGHT, NO DINNER: Fish-and-chip shop owner June Raper, of Gillygate Fisheries in York, with an empty tray after the blackout left her unable to fry any food and she lost out on trade on one of her busiest nights of the week

The area affected included Gillygate, part of Bootham, St Leonard's Place, Duncombe Place, High Petergate, Exhibition Square, and parts of Blake Street and Museum Street.

The power went off at about 5.25pm, affecting 516 addresses, according to Northern Electric's public affairs manager, Julian Kenyon.

Most supplies were restored within two hours, and the rest by about 9.30pm.

"The cause was due to an overhead power line problem," Mr Kenyon said.

"We apologise to the customers who were affected in York. Our engineers did their utmost to restore supplies as quickly as we possibly could."

Hundreds of children had to leave the Theatre Royal after the emergency lights came on part-way through the matinee of Old Mother Milly.

One of the children was Heather Sutherland, who had gone to the show with Tang Hall School to celebrate her seventh birthday.

Heather's mother, Judy, said she initially thought the house lights had come on.

"Then they came on the stage and said they couldn't carry on," she said. Theatre Royal marketing manager, Karen Crocker, said the evening performance was also cancelled, despite electricity returning because the emergency lights had not powered up.

"Everybody was very disappointed," Karen said.

But the matinee audience could see a special show on Thursday at 4pm, while the evening audience could see one at 10.30am next Saturday. They should bring their tickets from yesterday to get in free, and if there was a problem call the box office on York 623568.

There were chaotic scenes at the junction of Gillygate and Bootham as drivers edged round each other and pedestrians tried to get across the road.

A York Police spokeswoman said traffic lights were out at Station Rise, Micklegate, Exhibition Square and Gillygate.

But there had been no serious accidents, and officers had been going round busy junctions checking for problems.

Sergeant David Wells said all traffic lights were back on by about 9.45pm.

A North Yorkshire Ambulance spokeswoman said they had no calls to incidents due to the traffic problems.

The evening was gloomy for local businesses. The owner of Gillygate Fisheries, June Raper, lit up with candles, but couldn't serve anyone because her gas pans relied on electric thermostats.

The Lucky Star Chinese restaurant next door had similar problems, despite its gas ovens, because it was too dark to cook.

The Exhibition Hotel in Bootham was able to open using emergency lighting and a few candles on the bar, said company administrator Palma Joyce.

The pumps in the pub didn't work, but there were other drinks available, and the pub started serving food at 8.30pm once the power returned. Palma said she did not yet know the effect on takings.

The duty manager at the Dean Court Hotel, Nicky Brown, said they had given candles to the 33 guests already in, but the restaurant had been closed as the kitchens had been in darkness.

It's a right old pantomime as the lights go out in York

The lights have all gone out ... oh no they haven't ... oh yes they have.

These youngsters were enjoying the matinee performance of the Theatre Royal pantomime Old Mother Milly in York when the power went off and the show couldn't go on.

York's veteran pantomime dame, Berwick Kaler - in his 21st season at the theatre - said he had never known anything like it to happen before.

The evening performance of the pantomime also had to be cancelled, but performances resumed today and special performances will be held for disappointed ticket holders from yesterday.

Power went off across a large part of York city centre at the height of last night's rush hour, bringing chaos as traffic lights failed.

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