A popular Darlington restaurant was forced to cancel 300 of its bookings following a power cut.

A spokesperson for Babul's in Darlington said the restaurant had to cancel the bookings at short notice after the power cut which affected 60 premises on Skinnergate and Coniscliffe Road yesterday evening (Saturday, September 2).

The restaurant apologised to customers for the "frustrating" circumstances and said they had tried their best to keep the business open.

They added this was set to be their busiest weekend, and that the lost business had suffered a "massive hit" which would take months to recover from.

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A spokesperson for the business said: "Yesterday was a very frustrating day for us.

"We, along with many other businesses in the vicinity, suffered from a major power cut - power was interrupted several times throughout service. It was the last Saturday of the school holidays and on course to be the busiest weekend to date.

"We were promised several times by the Northern Powergrid that power would be back ‘within the hour’ which ultimately kept changing. Eventually it was too late to plan a back up when we were told power would not be back until 10pm.

"Unfortunately this left us in the position where we had to cancel bookings for over 300 guests at very short notice.

"We want to apologise to our customers, many of which had waited months for their table. We tried our best to keep service alive but were let down in the end."

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Babul's added that the cost of a full service team and a preparation of stock for a busy night had also hit them financially.

The business also said it would be looking into backup power options to prevent this tupe of disruption in future.

"It’s a very difficult climate for many businesses, many of which have already closed down due to the rise in costs," they added.

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"We’ve taken a massive hit in revenue, along with the cost of a full service team and a preparation of stock for a busy night, means, this will take us several months to recover from.

"Again our apologies to all of our customers for the inconvenience caused, we hope this doesn’t put you off from visiting us again.

"We are now looking at back up power options so that this kind of disruption does not hurt us in the future, any recommendations and advice would be greatly appreciated."