Castle Point Council offices were plunged into chaos for an hour following a power cut in Thundersley.

Traffic lights in Kiln Road, just outside the office buildings went down and council employees were unable to use their computers for an hour yesterday afternoon.

Officers and staff trying to sort out residents' concerns had to rely on emergency lighting just to see their way around the building.

Borough solicitor John Waugh said: "Our power went down for about an hour.

"It was most inconvenient and staff were annoyed at losing work on their computers.

"Thankfully it did not take us long to get the power back as it was only down for an hour and staff are now working on recovering any lost work."

The nearby Seevic College was also affected when the power went down.

A spokeswoman for 24seven electricity providers said: "Power was interrupted to around 1,100 customers in the Thundersley area.

"24seven carried out tests on the network and restored service to all customers affected with no fault found."

No one was available for comment at Seevic College.

Published Thursday, June 26, 2003

Brought to you by the Evening Echo