A power cut that badly hit businesses and affected homeowners in a Suffolk community has now been fixed.
Some families were left without power in their homes in Oulton Broad in Lowestoft for more than 40 hours, while businesses said they've lost thousands of pounds.
Since last Wednesday, June 12 there has been intermittent outages of the electricity supply on Bridge Road, Oulton Broad - with a full power cut on Saturday.
Some businesses temporarily closed their doors, and while others have reopened, for those trading the past few days have been described as "an absolute nightmare".
A restaurant had to cancel all its Father's Day bookings, punters missed out on screenings of the Euro 2024 football matches at pubs, while stock has been lost and no ice creams can be sold at one outlet - despite the warm recent weather.
UK Power Networks - who maintain the electricity networks locally - had engineers working on site since last week, with numerous vans on site and parts of the road having been dug up as repairs are carried out.
With the "unplanned power cut" understood to have been caused by a "fault on an underground electricity cable", the issue was eventually resolved as power was fully restored around 4pm on Tuesday (June 18).
Apologising for the recent problems, a UK Power Networks spokesman said the fault had proved "difficult to pinpoint and repair" as they were initially unable to restore power permanently to some businesses.
With customers in the Victoria Road and Bridge Road areas affected over the past week, as of Tuesday lunchtime there were still "14 customers in Bridge Road without a supply."
However this was resolved later in the afternoon, as the company said customer support staff were "helping and advising on site" and would be in touch with "anyone who is eligible for a payment for being off supply."
'An absolute nightmare'
While Mutford Lock and the bridge at Oulton Broad "is still operating" the Harbour Office team at Oulton Broad Yacht station was among those left without power.
Nikki Thomas, owner of the Sweet Obsession ice cream and sweet shop on Bridge Road, said her business had remained open - but they were unable to sell ice creams.
"It has been on and off since last Wednesday," Mrs Thomas said.
"Then the power went completely off on Saturday and the result was I lost all my ice cream - it has been an absolute nightmare."
Crisps barbers shop remains closed, although a sign on the door said they are aiming to re-open on Thursday.
The Waveney pub posted on Facebook that they're closing "until further notice" with a "reopening announcement" to follow once known.
'Devastated'
The Copper Smokehouse restaurant on Bridge Road is taking bookings for this weekend after "devastated" joint owners Paula Howden and Michael Smith had to cancel a fully booked Father's Day service on Sunday.
Ms Howden said: "Our side of the road had power restored on Sunday, but we lost all our Saturday night trade of 60 covers plus a fully booked restaurant for Father's Day of 95 covers.
"So we have lost £5000 of takings just in those two services.
"We were devastated that we had to let all our customers down on a special day but it was totally beyond our control.
"We were getting updates from UK Power that the power would be back on by lunchtime (on Sunday) so we were holding off as long as possible so as to avoid disappointing our customers."
However the power was not restored until later on the day, leading to the cancellations.
'Really hurting the businesses'
Steve Thornton, of the Lady of the Lake pub, has hired generators to ensure he does not lose any further stock.
The pub did close, amid the continued network power loss, but soon reopened.
Mr Thornton said: "This has caused a lot of stress and loss for all the businesses along Bridge Road.
"The power went off again Saturday around lunchtime.
"We managed to trade Saturday night as two of our three phase supply was working.
"It went off completely 15 minutes before the football on Sunday.
"We had a full pub of people that left to view it in other pubs.
"This is really hurting the businesses in Oulton Broad."
The pub is taking bookings for food and they will be showing the Euros football - with a live band performing on Saturday night.
Niall Clark, who lives on Bridge Road, said "It's been quite strange" as all the properties have been affected at different times.
He said: "A lot of businesses have suffered greatly because of this."
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