ELECTRICITY chiefs have apologised after hundreds of York households were hit by power cuts for four consecutive days.

CE Electric said the problems were initially caused by a fault in a high voltage cable, and then by a fault developing in a generator installed to restore supplies.

A spokeswoman said the first power cut happened at about 6pm on Tuesday and affected 2,537 households in Earswick, Huntington, Strensall, Old Earswick and Towthorpe.

She said electricity was restored to most homes at 6.49 pm, with others getting their power back at 2.29am on Wednesday after a generator was brought in.

But at 7.06am on Wednesday, a fault developed in the generator and 327 homes in the Earswick area again lost their electricity. A second generator was brought in, with power restored by 9.39am.

Householders in Earswick say they were hit by another cut at lunchtime on Thursday, although the spokeswoman said she was unaware of this.

However, she said the company anticipated another cut of between 10 and 15 minutes yesterday afternoon or evening (fri) after the cable fault was repaired and the generator was disconnected.

“We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused,” she said.

One householder hit by repeated cuts was Helen Mead of Earswick, who said: “It was like going back to my childhood in the 70s, with power cut after power cut.

“It was mildly amusing at first but gradually became very annoying. The problem in this weather is food in the freezer melting, and the uncertainty each time – not knowing when it’s going to come back on again.”

She added that the huge generator which had been placed on the pavement in an executive development off Earswick Chase had caused a huge noise, which had disturbed local residents.