OFFICIALS last night pledged an investigation after a village was left without power for 86 hours despite being only a few miles from a busy North-East town.

The four-day disruption is expected to cost distribution company NEDL thousands of pounds in compensation.

The village of Manfield, near Darlington, was hit by the power cut early on Saturday morning and had to endure an 86-hour wait before supplies were restored. Residents were perplexed by how long it took to remove a fallen tree that had hit power lines. One villager was said to have been prepared to cut it up himself to speed up the repairs.

Last night, NEDL said an investigation into the delay would be held, but promised that customers would be informed.

The village's 50 households will also receive compensation, expected to amount to £5,000.

Peter Hynes, 46, landlord of the Crown Inn, said many people had gathered there in the evenings.

He said: "When the power came back on there was a huge cheer in the pub."

The 16-pupil village primary school was closed for two days, but children returned to classes yesterday.

Meanwhile, the remaining 100 customers of the 150,000 in the region who lost supplies had their power restored yesterday. They were in remote properties surrounding Darlington and in Teesdale.

A spokesman for NEDL said that during the height of the gales on Saturday, the company's customer relations centre received more than 200,000 calls.

He said: "We apologise to anyone who experienced difficulty contacting us and thank them for their patience and understanding.

"We will be contacting all affected customers by letter to explain the situation and answer any questions they might have."

Elsewhere, up to 10,000 homes were without water in Hexham and Allendale, in Northumberland. The first were expected to have their supplies reconnected last night.

Storms on Tuesday night brought further misery across Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North of England.

The full force of the weather was unleashed in Scotland, where last night 43,000 homes were still without electricity. Three bodies were found yesterday as police searched for five members of a family feared drowned in the sea off north-west Scotland.

In the North-East, the C132 Cut Throat Lane, at High Westwood, in the Derwent Valley, was closed because of electricity poles leaning into the lane, and a tree fell on the B6313 Busty Bank, in Burnopfield. A chimney also collapsed in Pearl Street, Redcar, east Cleveland.

In Newcastle, the Tyne burst its banks last night, flooding part of the Quayside.

* Part of the A66 in Middlesbrough will be closed from 9.30am today. Both outside lanes will be shut between Newport roundabout and the A19 junction, for maintenance checks. The road is due to re-open this afternoon.