AN MP has demanded that compensation be paid to all 51,000 homes that suffered power cuts on New Year's Eve.

Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh has written to the chief executives of both Yorkshire Electricity Distribution (YEDL) and Northern Electric Distribution (NEDL), saying that compensation should be paid to everyone who was affected when heavy snow brought down power lines across the region.

Under the current rules brought in by industry regulator Ofgem in November, only people cut off for more than two days can claim compensation.

Miss McIntosh said: "This power failure came at the worst possible time of year for residents. Customers were left without electricity, and thus without heating or light in the depths of winter.

"As a gesture of goodwill, I believe that both YEDL and NEDL should offer prompt compensation to all those affected.

"This is yet another example of the inefficiency of the electricity distribution network as a whole. More care should be taken over the proper maintenance of equipment, and greater consideration given to the undergrounding of power lines, something which would obviously prevent such occurrences as the downing of overhead lines on New Year's Eve."

But NEDL say they invest more than £50m a year in improving and developing the electricity distribution network.

A spokeswoman for the company said: "We will continue to invest in the network to improve the reliability and security of supplies to all our customers. However, despite our best endeavours, extremes of weather such as occurred on New Year's Eve can unfortunately cause damage to the power supply network.

"We continue to monitor weather warnings from the Meteorological Office to ensure that we are prepared for such circumstances."