THREE times in one week, people living in Woodbridge Road, Ipswich have been left in the dark and cold because of power cuts.But it seems electricity company 24seven cannot pinpoint the problem.

THREE times in one week, people living in Woodbridge Road, Ipswich have been left in the dark and cold because of power cuts.

But it seems electricity company 24seven cannot pinpoint the problem.

Fuming resident Kate Higgs has spent yet another morning in the freezing cold after the electricity failed again today.

It is the second morning in a row that Miss Higgs has had to get ready by the light of street lamps to get her and her four-year-old daughter, Georgia ready.

Georgia had been coughing for most of last night and she had planned to keep her at home today but said it was just too cold to stay there.

But her plight is further frustrated by the fact that 24seven could not give her an explanation as to why the power keeps being cut.

However 24seven spokesman Chris Dodson was able to reveal today that an excessive demand in electricity has caused a fuse to blow.

Mr Dodson said: "They are working on it as we speak. It is affecting around 23 premises mainly in the Palmerston Road area.

"They reconfigure it and redistribute the power to get it working again."

But the fuse will continue to blow until they can find out why there is a sudden demand in electricity and that is the bit that takes the time.

The first power cut happened last Wednesday at around 6.30am but was back on by the time Miss Higgs got home from work.

But yesterday, Miss Higgs was woken by a loud bang at around 4am and realised the power had gone off again.

When she told them she had been woken by a loud bang the operator told her that it was probably an underground cable, but they were notoriously difficult to find.

It was back on again at around 8am but this morning at 6.30am it was cut again.

Miss Higgs, 42, said: "I was just in the middle of making a cup of tea and everything just went off.

"I was fuming. The house is freezing.

"You're just terrified that when you get back at night it is going to go off again."

Miss Higgs is furious by the constant power cuts and is also unhappy with the service she has received from 24seven after hanging on the phone for 45 minutes yesterday trying to find out if the service had been reconnected.

Mr Dodds apologised. He said: "This is unacceptable. We aim to have all calls answered within 20 seconds."

He said that any calls longer than that would go on to a taped message and that he would investigate to see if there was a problem at that time.

N Around 40 customers in the Hollesley area were without power this morning because of sagging overhead lines in Sudbourne. Mr Dodds said engineers were working on the problem and he estimated that they should have been back on within a couple of hours.