UNLUCKY East Barnet residents suffered a further power failure yesterday when their electricity was cut off for nearly nine hours.

A total of 246 people living in the Middle Road and Jackson Road lost their electricity at 7.02pm. Engineers from EDF Energy restored power at 3.50pm.

The town has been plagued with power problems since December when a water pipe burst in the cold and flooded the gas pipe system.

More than 1,000 homes lost their gas supply from December 20.

A major operation was launched to pump the water out but progress was slow, leaving many residents shivering, even on Christmas Day.

The last households were not reconnected until New Year's Eve.

Residents in more than one street also lost electricity after gas supplier National Grid handed out electric fan heaters, and residents overloaded the system in a desperate bid to keep warm.

A spokeswoman for EDF Energy said: “We do appreciate how difficult it is to be without power and would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

Were you affected yesterday? Contact Barnet reporter Sarah Cosgrove on 07795 505 961 or leave a comment in the box below.