Businesses and homes in parts of St Albans city centre were left without power for up to five hours yesterday.

A total of 1,696 properties, including some in Market Place, were cut off at about 2.55pm.

Although power was restored to some places throughout the afternoon, it wasn’t until just before 8pm that all homes were back to normal.

Businesses across the city lost trade throughout the afternoon as they were either forced to close or offer reduced services.

The Portland Arms, in Portland Street, managed to stay open without the power but were unable to serve food.

Landlord Neil Dekker said: "We weren’t able to do food as we are a completely electric kitchen.

"We stayed open and continued selling our traditional beers but weren’t able to do any draft lagers as the pumps are all electric.

"People were generally fine with it, all the neighbours were out too so it’s just one of those things.

"It has probably cost us around £300 to £400 in lost takings but it wouldn’t even be worth it to try and claim on insurance due to increased premiums."

Forced to close early

Several businesses across the town were forced to close their doors early due to the power cut, which was caused by a fault on the high voltage underground cable.

Wendy Hooper, one of the owners of the Inn on the Park in Verulamium Park, was left without power for the whole afternoon.

Staff were unable to serve customers and were concerned about keeping their stock, particularly ice cream, cold in the hot weather.

Ms Hooper said: "There was obviously a big problem. We’ve not been in this situation before.

"We’ve got lots of fridges and freezers and they wouldn’t have stayed cold."

Although the power came back on in time to keep their products cold, the cafe still lost an afternoon of trading during one of the hottest days of the year so far.

Ms Hooper said: "It would have affected us for sure.

Customers upset

"We were absolutely in full swing at 3pm.

"The afternoons are quite often our busiest time with the kids leaving school.

"There were some customers that were really upset because they wanted food."

Atlas Translations in Upper Dagnall Street was also forced to close.

PA administrator Carol Chalkley said: "We had to close early and ended up finishing at 3pm.

"We lost nearly three hours of business and things were delayed."

Some other businesses in the centre did not suffer the full power cut but were still affected by after effects.

Meg Burnham, an employee at Flight Centre in Chequer Street, said: "The lights flickered and the phones went, which cut off a couple of our customers.

"Luckily the computers didn’t go because that’s our whole business."

Staff and volunteers at charity ReachOut Plus were forced to finish without completing the day as their computers keep crashing due to the cut.

Lisa Bates, executive director of the St Albans District Chamber of Commerce, said: "The disruption caused by the power cuts can be really damaging to businesses, particularly the loss of revenue and also reputation, particularly if dealing with a client outside the area who is not experiencing the same problem.

"I happened to be in a local city centre restaurant during the power cut, it was proving to be a big challenge trying to serve lunches on time and professionally. A hair salon opposite was unable to finish a blow dry and I suspect then unable to charge the customer.

"We are so reliant on these services to work efficiently as the knock effect is immediate and chaotic, not to mention costly, in a business climate when things are already very difficult. Let’s hope it was a one off and there is no further disruption in the district".

Jessica Gallagher, from UK Power Network, said: "We would like to reassure our customers that we worked as quickly as was safely possible to restore their supplies to normal as soon as we could.

"We realise how difficult it can be to be without power and apologise for any inconvenience."