Neighbours blighted by persistent power cuts have been scared to leave their house at night as the problem has meant their street has been plunged into darkness.

Homeowners in Langley Grove, Sandridge, have been left with their road partially lit after a number of the lights malfunctioned.

But since November, it is not just the main stretch of road that has been affected as some residents have experienced power cuts in their own homes.

An elderly resident, who did not want to be named, said: “We haven’t had lights on here at all and you do feel rather shut off when you are older and it is dark.

“At the time you feel like it’s the end of the world but then you think logically. You daren’t go out when it’s dark as people have put their bins out and you can’t see them at all.

“There is a school on the corner so you feel as though someone would have done something about it. We are right on the edge of the village and there are fields around so it’s quite scary when it’s dark.

“There are a few of us who are older and everyone is up in arms about it, but quite honestly what can we do.”

Another of the street’s elderly residents said: “The thing is you can manage without street lights but when you have no power in your house it is just devastating.

“I don’t like complaining but this has been going on for a long time.”

A spokeswoman for UK Power Networks said: “We would like to apologise to customers in Langley Grove, Sandridge, who have been affected by a fault on our low voltage underground network several times since November.

“The fault has been particularly hard to locate but we would like to reassure those customers that we are working hard to identify the cause and have fitted some specialist equipment in a nearby substation to help pinpoint it.

“There have been five faults in the street since November and we have worked hard to return supplies to normal within about two hours each time. On one occasion however we were unable to restore power for just over five hours.”

She added that since October the company has received three requests to fix three different streetlights, which were unrelated and fixed within two days.

She confirmed that a street light fault that was reported on January 14 was fixed by January 20.

She said: “We realise that power cuts are inconvenient but would like to reassure customers that we have been monitoring the network and will ensure that as soon as the fault is located, permanent repairs will be made and the network restored to its usual reliable state.”