Angry caf proprietors and traders in Brentwood have hit out over power cuts which cost them thousands of pounds in lost business.

The cuts affected premises on the northern side of the High Street near Wilson's Corner last weekend but intermittent failures persisted into the early part of this week.

Badly hit were Pizza Express and Caffe Uno. Some shops were forced to close early and others were disrupted.

Caffe Uno assistant manager Ray Wilcock said:''We lost thousands of pounds in takings. The worst day was Friday when we were without power in the afternoon.''

At Pizza Express, manager Gavin Leitch had to close early on Friday. He said: "The power also went off a couple of times on Saturday but we managed to stay open. We have lost a lot of money."

Next, Halfords, Baldwins the Bakers and Intatravel were also affected. Granada also had to shut.

An Eastern Electricity spokeswoman said: "There have been troublesome intermittent faults affecting 12 businesses in the High Street which have been difficult to pinpoint. We have apologised to the people affected while our engineers investigate."

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