HOMES and businesses in Ely were blacked out on Monday morning when a power cut hit the city. More than 1,000 properties were affected when a fault in an underground cable left homes, shops and offices without electricity at 9.20am. Some shopkeepers close

HOMES and businesses in Ely were blacked out on Monday morning when a power cut hit the city.

More than 1,000 properties were affected when a fault in an underground cable left homes, shops and offices without electricity at 9.20am.

Some shopkeepers closed for business because they were unable to use their computerised tills and computers and telephones were shutdown.

The traffic lights at the corner of Lynn Road and Nutholt Lane suddenly went off, leaving drivers confused.

And at the East Cambridgeshire District Council offices in Nutholt Lane the electric doors failed to open, leaving callers having to use a side entrance.

Engineers working to repair the fault managed to restore power in stages with the first properties reconnected within half an hour and power back on completely in two hours.

Staff at Thomas Cook in Market Street decided to close the shop while the power was out.

"We put a note on the door to tell customers what was happening and closed the shop," said a spokeswoman. "We rely on our computers and telephones so there was nothing we could do."

At the Ely Standard, also in Market Street the power cut wiped out the computers and telephones but the office remained open for customers.

Ely Police Station lost power twice for a few seconds each time, crashing the computers and phones before its back up generator kicked in restoring electricity.

The fault was not weather-related but high winds and torrential rain left other customers throughout the Eastern Region without power.

On Tuesday there were still 1,200 customers, including some in Cambridgeshire, without electricity.

An EDF Energy Network spokesman said: "Engineers restored the supply to Ely customers in stages. The repair had been completed and all customers had their power restored by 11.33am.

"Our staff continued to make good progress through the night to bring down the number of weather-related faults.

"We have teams out across the region again from early Tuesday morning to restore supplies as quickly and as safely as possible.

"We will be focusing on the many individual properties that were affected, particularly in more rural areas. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to customers.