Traders in Leigh who have lost thousands of pounds from a spate of powers cuts are threatening to take action if they continue to be blighted by daily blackouts.

Businesses lost power again on Wednesday afternoon plunging stores into darkness and causing customers to leaves the stores.

Up to 20 business owners have now signed letters which have already been sent to Southend West MP David Amess, 24seven boss Alan Carey and the energy watchdog.

Losing customers : butcher Tony Harrison with the petition Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL

Electric company 24seven said it has carried out repairs which it hopes will put an end to the power cuts in Leigh Hill, Broadway West and Rectory Grove.

However, it said it still needs to investigate the issue of an overload on the electricity network.

Butcher Tony Harrison, who has worked in Broadway West for 30 years, said: "We lost power at 2.30pm on Wednesday and it didn't come back on until the evening.

Karen Dann, managing director of the Homemade Bakery, said: "It's just crazy. We've lost hundreds and hundreds of rolls. A couple of weeks ago we lost 200 loaves of bread.We supply a lot of local businesses and sandwich bars - we could be seriously damaged by this."

A 24seven spokeswoman apologised to customers adding: "Engineers from 24seven located and repaired a fault on an underground network which we believe is the cause of the interruptions. We believe that this work, in addition to the reconfigurations to the network, will resolve the problems. However we still need to investigate the possibility of a 'load' issue, and if this is the case, we will need to carry out work to alleviate that."

Published Friday, January 24, 2003

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