TRADERS say they are being left in the dark over the cause of blackouts which are hitting their town centre businesses.

Shops and businesses in Bishop Auckland were at the end of their tether after being hit by a string of power cuts in the past few weeks.

More than a dozen shops on Newgate Street were closed yesterday morning in the latest electricity failure.

One of the worst hit was amusement arcade Classic Amusements.

Manager Karen Dunn says she has endured ten power cuts since February 8 and estimates she has lost £700 worth of businesses on the games machines last week while the arcade's caf has also lost money.

Yesterday morning, she was sat in the dark again with her staff and the lifeless games machines.

She said: "Everything here electric. On Thursday we lost power exactly on midday, which is our busiest time in the caf.

"The other side of the street isn't affected and there's an arcade there which our customers must be going to.

"If the power isn't on when it comes to putting the shutters down I'll have to sleep here all night, because I can't lock up."

Other shop workers were also left sitting in the gloom.

Dorothy Perkins clothes store moved into the Burton Menswear store further down the street and their re-opening on Thursday was marred by the power failure.

Deputy manager Emma Green said: "For the opening we did have power for the first three-quarters of an hour, but we had to ask people to leave when the lights went because it was so dangerous.

"We haven't been able to open this morning at all. We're really sick."

Andrew Harrison, who owns Glass Bead, a glassware and gift shop said they suffered three power cuts on one of their busiest shopping days of the year, the day before Valentine's Day.

Electricity distributors NEDL said they had manage to locate the fault in an underground cable yesterday, which had been intermittently been causing problems since January 18.

They were due to repair the cable yesterday evening.

Commercial director Mike Leighton said the nature of the problem meant there would be no compensation available.