Ongoing power cuts having "significant impact" on Whitby town centre businesses

Lois Kirtlan of Hetty & Betty restaurant, said around 60 Whitby properties around the Baxtergate and New Quay Road area, mainly businesses, had suffered power cuts for the past three days.

She said Northern Powergrid had sent out repeated texts saying the issue was resolved by changing fuses – but the power cuts were recurring.

"Northern Powergrid have advised us that they cannot guarantee power at all times, and have said the only way to protect ourselves from power cuts is by purchasing and operating a generator,” she said.

"This is neither feasible, due to space and noise, or for many of the affected businesses, financially viable.

“The power cuts seem to occur around the same time every morning, the fuses are then reset at the sub-station and we have power in the afternoon.

"We are now having to adapt our opening times to try to accommodate power cuts, as we are left with the options of closing until the fault is detected and fixed, or opening with the knowledge that we are likely to lose power.

"This is a completely unacceptable way to try and run a business.

"Northern Powergrid have not given us a timeframe as to how long these power cuts are going to go on for.

"As a business, this is having a detrimental affect, at the time of year when footfall is at its lowest, as we are in our off-season, and so every penny of income is crucial.

"Our bills still have to be paid, but if we are unable to open, we have no income.

“This is having significant impact on all of our businesses.”

They even amended their hours to open at 1pm on January 11, expecting a loss of power, but in the end, there wasn’t one.

The Golden Lion pub was another business hit by the loss of power and an employee said they had lost around three-quarters of their trade and had to have cleaners working in the dark, which wasn’t easy.

Whitby Town Council is urging anyone affected by the recent power cuts around Baxtergate and New Quay Road could contact Northern Powergrid by calling 105 from any phone.

"As a customer, you can raise a formal complaint and request a full investigation of the repeated fault,” the authority said.

A spokesperson for electricity network operator, Northern Powergrid, confirmed: “The power interruption is associated with an underground cable that is suffering from an intermittent fault.

"Engineers have now attended site and fitted equipment that can locate the fault next time it happens.

"When a fuse operates, this equipment will automatically restore supplies so reducing the inconvenience to customers.

"The equipment we have installed will provide information to our engineers to help us locate and fix the problem.

“We apologise to customers for any disruption caused and thank them for their patience while our teams work hard to monitor and resolve this issue as soon as possible.”