Neighbours in a central Watford street were left lamenting lost sleep after engineers came to dig up the road to fix faulty electrical cables – after midnight.

Power cuts plagued the ironically-named Brightwell Road on consecutive days last week, leaving residents without power for several hours.

One resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said many people were unable to cook dinner on Wednesday evening as the blackout lasted between 6pm and 9pm.

On the following night, the electricity again shut off at around 6pm but had still not returned by midnight.

It was at this point that engineers from UK Power Networks arrived in an attempt to fix the problem.

“We were in total darkness. My power came back on at 9pm but I was the only one in the street,” he said.

“At 12.30am they started digging in front of my house with pneumatic drills. Kids were getting woken up. I thought ‘what the hell is going on?’

“They said it was a problem with old cabling but surely that means other places in Watford are the same and the power will go from time to time. If the cabling is old, they need to start replacing it.

“We are fuming. We are not in the Third World - this is Watford. So why couldn’t they send more resources?”

Watford Observer:

How the works in Brightwell Road look today

The resident questioned the validity of the excuse he was given, arguing that new housing developments on nearby Whippendell Road were putting the grid under additional pressure.

“These developments are coming online and they are drawing power. The cabling is having a surge of extra power,” he said.

UK Power Networks apologised for the inconvenience caused, saying the repair works would be completed as quickly as possible.

The company added that the blackouts were caused by an underground cable developing a fault, which interrupted power to up to 89 customers at times.