PEOPLE living in Gains near Whitbourne have been left in the dark after a string of power cuts.

During the past six weeks, the area off Gaines Road has lost electricity for up to two hours at a time.

"Last Sunday, we lost power six times," fumed resident Sam Marshall.

There are ten private dwellings in the area as well as the Gains Christian Youth Centre.

"I am most concerned about the older people here in a country area like this if we do lose power," the 75-year-old said.

The power cuts have also caused problems for the community centre, which was set up by Mr Marshall.

"The centre can accommodate 150 people and has cooking equipment, fridges, and deep freezers.

"Last week, we had a school group of 80 there, including staff and pupils."

A spokeswoman for GPU said: "We are aware that there is a fault and we apologise for this.

"But with around 40 miles of circuit it is a little bit like finding a needle in a haystack.

"Because it is a series of short intermittent power losses it could well be a tree on the line, or possibly a lightning strike."

The spokeswoman said GPU already had teams out there looking for the problem.

A helicopter was scrambled on Wednesday to fly over the area to identify the problem.

Nail this

"We want to nail this problem once and for all," she said.

Mr Marshall claimed a GPU operator manning the power loss helpline on Sunday told him there would be a seven to 10-day delay before the glitch was fixed.

But the spokeswoman denied this.

"If someone loses power we deal with it straight away," she said.

"We do have some delays because of problems caused by foot-and-mouth restrictions, but this does not apply to this area."

GPU has been in contact with Mr Marshall who said he was satisfied with its explanation and apology.

"We do not have a seven to 10-day delay," the spokeswoman said.

"There must have been some crossed wires somewhere."