DOZENS of residents in Whitefield have been forced to live by candlelight and wrap up in blankets after being plagued by a series of lengthy blackouts.

Angry families in Philips Park Road West and Parkstone Avenue could face several more days of power cuts because of ongoing problems with their electricity supply.

Householders have suffered at least five power cuts in ten days, with one lasting nine hours.

Up to 37 homes served by a nearby sub-station may be affected by the problems.

Residents are now demanding immediate action from electricity provider United Utilities, which has informed them it could be weeks before things are back to normal.

The first and longest power cut occurred two weeks ago on a Friday afternoon (Feb 15) at around 1pm.

By 10pm when power was eventually restored many families had already grown impatient and sought food, light and shelter elsewhere.

A local doctor who was affected by the blackout said: "We were so fed up we went out for a meal.

"Since then we have had further power cuts for three and four hours at a time and some for just a few minutes. We have been told it could take weeks and months for them to find out what is wrong but it is just not good enough."

"I can be working on an important report on my computer when, bang, everything goes off. The freezer is affected and food is ruined and a woman living round the corner can't keep her baby's bottles warm. This has got to be sorted."

Neighbours Tom and Shelagh Brockbank, of Philips Park Road West, were equally frustrated with the situation.

Mrs Brockbank said: "A lot of people are retired and at home during the day. There is no warning of when it is going to happen and there is no way of knowing how long it will last.

"I have been sitting here in the afternoon with a blanket around me for warmth and we have had to light candles. It is still winter, after all, and the weather we have been having recently has been terrible."

The Brockbanks say the power cuts have become so frequent they now sit at home waiting for the lights to go off.

Mrs Brockbank added: "Is there no end to this? There is nothing we can do when it happens. We rely totally on our electricity.

"There is no use waiting for a fault to show up. They should take an axe to the cable and then fix it!"

A spokesman for United Utilities said there was a "transient fault", which means there is a nick or cut in the power cable causing the blackouts. Until a permanent fault occurs they are unable to identify the source of the problem.

She said: "We do apologise to our customers for any inconvenience but we are trying to identify where the fault lies. We have no idea how long this will take as a transient fault cannot be detected on our equipment.

"In the meantime we are taking a percentage of customers onto another network to see if the situation is improved while we carry out tests."