Cold night for powerless homes

A farmer with a snow plough near Buxton in Derbyshire

Up to seven thousand households spent a second night without power after heavy snowfalls brought down lines.

Thousands of homes across northern England lost their electricity supply during New Year's Eve and by the morning of 1 January, 43,000 households were affected.

Northern Electric Distribution (NEDL) and Yorkshire Electricity Distribution said bad weather had hit an area stretching down the east coast from Berwick in the Scottish borders to North Lincolnshire and west across the Pennines.

The company said staff had been "working continuously" to reconnect people but 7,000 homes could still be cut off until Friday.

On Thursday more than 40,000 homes were reconnected.

"We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our customers who can be assured that we are doing everything possible to restore supplies as soon as possible," NEDL said in a statement.

The company urged those still without power to take precautions:

• Use a torch instead of candles

• Pop in and make sure any elderly neighbours are safe and well

• Keep one room warm and stay in it and keep a flask of a hot drink by you

• Turn off electrical appliances such as portable heaters and hobs because power may be restored at any time.

On New Year's Day, North Yorkshire, the Whitby area and the villages of Ampleforth, Easingwold, Sheriff Hutton, Oswaldkirk and Leppington in Ryedale were among the worst affected.

Premises around Wooler, Morpeth, Alnwick, Allendale in Northumberland, and around Consett in County Durham were also affected.

Northern Electric Distribution customer services director Mike Leighton said engineers had worked through Thursday to get power supplies back on.

Helicopters patrolled overhead lines to assess the damage caused by a combination of snow, ice and strong winds.

About 25,000 homes in Cumbria were left without electricity after high winds and heavy snow damaged power lines on New Year's Eve.

United Utilities said on Thursday afternoon around 900 customers were still without electricity.

Meanwhile, roads across the North slowly got back to normal during Thursday after blizzards left many routes hazardous or impassable overnight.

Meanwhile, the New Year's Day race meeting at Catterick in North Yorkshire was cancelled because of frost.