The opening of a town's new multimillion-pound leisure complex has been delayed by a cable fault.

Bosses were due to cut the ribbon at the £75m Elwick Place cinema and hotel development in Ashford on Saturday after months of building work.

But the opening has been pushed back by one week after UK Power Networks discovered the fault directly beneath the site.

Gary Bourne, development director at Stanhope PLC, confirmed the opening ceremony planned for this weekend will now take place on Saturday, December 15 when the six-screen Picturehouse cinema opens.

Mr Bourne said: "We have recently learned that UK Power Networks has discovered a cable fault, which requires urgent repair to maintain reliable power supplies in the area.

"The fault that has been identified is unrelated to any of the works that we have carried out on site.

"We are keen to ensure UK Power Networks can make these repairs and we are providing immediate access to the site to allow them to rectify the issue as quickly as possible.

"We are sorry to confirm that the decision has been taken to postpone the Elwick Place community event and opening ceremony by one week.

"The opening of Picturehouse, as announced last week, will still take place on December 15 as originally planned and we are pleased to be able to combine our own community event with Picturehouse’s opening plans on this date.”

A UK Power Networks spokesman said engineers are set to complete the work today.

She said: "We worked hard through the weekend and into this week to repair an underground cable in Elwick Place as quickly as possible.

"We aim to finish repairs and temporarily resurface the area on December 5.

"We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by this emergency work.

"Power supplies have not been affected by our repairs."