BUSINESSES in a Kent town were forced to close and hundreds of families were left without heating for hours after three power cuts in five days.

On Friday customers in Deal town centre were left without any service for 12 hours and traders had to turn people away.

EDF Energy said work was carried out on an underground cable in the early hours of Monday but it was a complex fault and a generator had to be connected to the local substation.

Spokeswoman Niamh Arnett said: "We are extremely sorry that those customers served by the temporary supply experienced two further power interruptions on Thursday and Friday.

"In response we brought in a replacement generator which restored supplies to the 390 customers at 8.07pm on Friday.

"We take this matter very seriously and we would like to express our sincere apologies for the disruption caused."

She added that they liaised with the local authority but due to other works taking place in the area it is not possible to start work on the permanent repairs until Monday.