More than 1,000 properties faced a power cut this morning because of an underground fault.

People living in Maidstone, Boxley, Boughton Monchelsea and surrounding areas had been left without power since around 9.23am.

In its first update regarding the outage on its website, UK Power Networks said the fault had interrupted power to 1,807 properties.

It said: “We didn’t know in advance there would be a power cut, but now that we know, our teams will do everything they can to get your power back quickly.

“Engineers in our control room have switched some customers power back on in your area.”

As a result of the issue, Lockmeadow Health Club said it was unable to allow members or visitors on site. However, at 3pm it welcomed visitors back to the site.

In a post on Facebook, it said: “We’ve been told by our supplier that we’re currently running on a temporary cable and we should expect a temporary power outage later today - although we anticipate this will only last a matter of minutes.

“We’re sorry for the disruption today - thank you for your patience.”

In an update at 11.23am, UK Power Networks said it believed its engineers had been able to restore power to all 1807 customers in the ME16 8 area by diverting power around an underground cable fault.

It said: “If your power isn't back on we'll need to hear from you.

“We know that being without power can be worrying, but please rest assured that our staff work around the clock to keep the lights on.”

The website states: “An underground electricity cable has faulted on our high voltage network, causing an area wide power cut.”

A UK Power Networks spokesperson said: “Engineers worked quickly and safely to restore power supplies to 1,807 customers in Maidstone after a fault on an underground cable at 9.23am today.

“Power was restored to most customers within minutes and all supplies were reconnected in stages by 10.48am. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.”