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, and one is 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 will be informed.

The village's 50 households will also receive compensation, expected to amount to £5,000 - £25 for the first 48 hours, and £25 for every 12 hours after that.

Last night, as Ricky Smith ate a roast dinner, his first proper cooked meal since the power cut, he said: "The amount of compensation NEDL will have to pay is far more than it would have cost to have a lumberjack remove the tree on Saturday," he said.

"But the cost will be passed on to the consumer in the end so we end up losing in every way."

The Smith family kept their home on Town Green heated with logs on their open fire and were able to boil pans of water over the flames, but some electric-only houses suffered worse.

Warden-controlled flats for elderly people were left without heating and lighting throughout the blackout.

Peter Hynes, 46, landlord of the Crown Inn, said many people had gathered there in the evenings to keep warm and share their moans.

Mr Hynes kept the pub lit with a combination of candles and gas camping lamps. Because it specialises in real ale, the pumps were not affected by the blackout.

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

The 16-pupil 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 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, water bosses have reassured residents that newly-restored supplies will be safe following reports that youngsters have been urinating in emergency bowsers set up to help stricken families.

Up to 10,000 homes were without water in Hexham and Allendale, in Northumberland, after the county took a battering at the weekend, but the first were expected to have their supplies reconnected last night.

Storms on Tuesday 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.

Roads and bridges were closed, ferry services abandoned and rail routes suspended.

Two 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.

A tree fell on the B6313 Busty Bank, at Burnopfield, causing an estimated £30,000 damage to footpaths.

Fifteen wooden poles and four street light poles around the county came down in the high winds, along with a number of sections of the overhead network.

A chimney also collapsed in Pearl Street, Redcar, east Cleveland.

In Newcastle, the River Tyne burst its banks, flooding a small area of the quayside last night. Part of the pedestrian walkway under the Swing Bridge was under water and some businesses were under threat of flooding.

Meanwhile, water levels along the remaining stretch of the River Tyne's Quayside were within one metre of breaching the bank.

* 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 essential maintenance checks after the high winds. The road is due to re-open this afternoon.

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