RESIDENTS and businesses in Oswaldtwistle were left without power for much of the day yesterday.

Underground electricity cables developed faults at around 9am hitting properties in Union Road, Albert Street and Haworth Street.

United Utilities said that the cuts had left around 50 homes and businesses without power.

They attempted to fix the problem remotely but were forced to out an engineer to at 3pm. The problem was solved late last night .

Jamal Kazi, who runs Union News in Union Road, said the power cut had cost him half a day's takings.

He said: "I can understand that there are problems and there might be a power cut for an hour or two but a full day is much too long. It should have been fixed quicker.

"I had no lights on in my shop and it did not look like the shop open. I also lost sales because I couldn't sell any chilled food or drinks."

A spokesman for United Utilities said the problem developed after a low voltage cable began to develop an "intermittent fault."

He said: "We apologise to customers for the problems they suffered. We did everything in our power to restore the supply as quickly as possible."

He said that delays had occurred because it had been very difficult to locate exactly where the fault on the cable was.