A power cut in Gillingham caused widespread disruption to the town centre on Monday 9 March.

The electricity suppliers Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks insisted that the fault in Church Lane, which began at 2.17am, only affected  ’16 customers’.

However, these customers included Gillingham primary school whose pupils had to stay home, the town council which had to move its planning committee meeting to a cramped office, the Post Office and Lloyds Bank.

Other High Street businesses were also hit.

A spokesperson for SSEN said that when staff located the fault in an underground cable they found a secondary problem which also neded fixing. his caused the repairs to take longer than originally expected.

The spokesperson added: ‘We naturally apologise for any disruption caused. We have been doing all we can to restore the power as soon as possible.’

The repairs were expected to be completed by 9pm on Monday.