Residents report power problems

Residents of an Essex town claim they have had five power cuts in 12 days although supplier EDF Energy says it is not aware of any problem.

A number of streets in Hatfield Peverel near Chelmsford have experienced problems with the outages lasting up to four hours in some cases.

An EDF Energy spokesman said: "We are not aware of any specific underlying problems with the network in Essex."

The company added that it was investing £400m in its electricity network.

One resident, Bernie Herd, told BBC Radio Essex: "It doesn't necessarily take out the whole street, but our block of two, then the next block would be on and somebody else will be out down the road."

EDF Energy added: "Faults can occur from time to time on our network for a variety of reasons.

"This year we are investing over £400m in the networks we operate on projects to maintain, improve and extend the network to cater for growth in demand for service."