Residents are saying enough is enough after being plunged into darkness once too often.

People living in the Moorland Terrace area of Skipton say they are fed up of not knowing when they will next be without power.

The electricity supply has been on and off frequently since December 13, most recently yesterday, when it was off almost three hours from 3.30pm.

Moorland Terrace resident Peter Haworth said: “We’ve had enough of it and want to know what is wrong and when it will stop.

“We’ve stocked up with candles and been putting up with it – slugging it out. It has only been for a short time, six hours at the most, but there are elderly people in the area who have been worried.

“It’s a crazy situation because we can be off and our immediate neighbours stay on. We want to know what is happening.”

Newsagent David Dunn, who runs The Paper Shop in Sunmoor Drive, has kept a log of the dates when power has gone off.

“It is so unpredictable we’ve had to buy battery- operated lanterns,” he said.

Supplier CE Electric UK has written to Mr Dunn saying the fault is likely to have been caused by damage to the cable caused by other utilities working nearby.

CE Electric spokesman Michael Sargood said two repairs had been carried out to underground faults in the last few weeks but engineers suspected there was a third.

“We will be closely monitoring the supply over the festive period and beyond and we would like to reassure our customers that if a power cut does occur, we will give it our urgent attention,” he said.