A FOUR-year-old Blackburn girl had her birthday celebrations thrown into chaos after a power cut.

Her angry mum Lisa Simpson, of Shakespeare Way, had to make hurried arrangements for 11 children to have the party at Zoe's grandma's home in nearby Fawcett Close.

Today United Utilities blamed problems with underground cables for the fault and apologised.

Lisa said: "How do you explain to a four-year-old that she might not be able to have her birthday tea party after all? Fortunately my mother, Winifred, only lives a few streets away.

"It is the second time this has happened in three weeks.

"No one told us why the power went off. I just heard from a neighbour that the workmen would be round to fix it after 4pm when the party was planned for 5pm.

"I don't know how they can leave people without power for so long. I had to go to a neighbours to boil some water in a pan, as she has a gas cooker."

A spokesman for United Utilities said: "We would like apologise to the Simpson family and hope that the power cut did not spoil the party or cause too much inconvenience for residents.

"Over 50 properties were affected. One of our service electricians went out to Shakespeare Way at 8.30am yesterday to check the fuses and found they were all intact.

"But when our engineers started work out there yesterday morning they discovered they would have to do some underground repair work."