RAYNERS Lane ground to a halt last week after residents and businesses suffered a series of power cuts.

More than 1,000 people lost power in Rayners Lane and Imperial Drive after a fault on a high voltage underground cable at 12.30pm on September 3. Many had power restored by 1.30pm but a number of buildings remained cut off until much later.

Many angry customers could not draw money out of NatWest and Barclays banks, in Rayners Lane. While drinkers at The Village Inn, in Rayners Lane, had time called early, as power cuts forced the pub to close at 5.30pm and 6.30pm, Talbot House, in Imperial Drive, endured a further failure the next day when one of its generators stopped working. The building, which hosts pensioner's meetings, had experienced another power cut two weeks earlier when a cable fault on the high voltage underground network left 1,707 homes without electricity.

A spokesman for EDF Energy, who supply electricity to the area, said: "Power supplies to 1,219 customers in Harrow were interrupted on Friday. Engineers restored power to the majority of customers by 1.36pm. A further 270 supplies were restored between 2.20pm and 8.17pm and the last supplies were restored via generators at 3.45am with the exception of one block which remained without power until repairs were completed. Unfortunately, some customers experienced a further power interruption on Saturday. An unrelated cable fault interrupted supplies on August 21 before permanent repairs were carried out.

"We would like to apologise to all the affected customers for the inconvenience this will have caused."