IT WAS business as usual at the farmers' livestock marts - despite the flooding, power cuts, water shortages and heavy storms which battered the region this week.

At Hexham, sales carried on as usual, even though many homes in the town were without water for several days.

Mart manager Trevor Simpson said the mart had been fully operational this week. He said the mart was back on mains water at the start of the week and had not needed to use its own water supply.

"Everything is fine," he said. "The car park was flooded a bit and we had no water for a few days, but we have just carried on as usual.

"No water actually got into the building and it has all been washed out for the big sale."

Carlisle's mart has also been unaffected by flooding which has paralysed the town.

David Pritchard, the mart's operations manager, said: "Though the flooding was very close to us, it hasn't affected our premises."

He also said the mart had not experienced a power cut because the premises had an on-site generator.

But numbers of stock were 30-40pc lower than usual weeks, probably because farmers were having problems with flooding and electricity on their own land.

But he expected stock to return to normal levels next week.

Like Carlisle and Hexham, the farmers' mart in Penrith has experienced no difficulties during the extreme weather conditions.

A spokesman said the mart had not been affected by flooding, water or power cuts and was trading as normal.

* Special report and pictures: see Storms in the North, pages 18 and 19.