TRADERS affected by a town centre power cut which wrecked Christmas shopping are seeking compensation.

Darlington Chamber of Trade is urging shops to claim for lost business after the town centre was plunged into darkness for more than three hours.

The power cut, caused by a contractor slicing through a 132,000 volt underground cable, resulted in many stores having to close on one of the busiest shopping days in the run up to Christmas.

Business leaders have described it as a body blow to Christmas trading, and they want those responsible for causing it to be brought to book.

Albion Small, president of Darlington Chamber of Trade and manager of the town's Cornmill Shopping Centre, said: "Some of the smallest shops in the Cornmill could have expected to have takings of £1,200, but, instead, they could only manage £200. The larger stores, such as Boots, must have lost a fortune, and we would encourage businesses to seek compensation.

"People were in town on Tuesday to spend money with Christmas around the corner, and they were just not unable to do so."

A spokesman for the Boots store in High Row said takings were down 30 per cent.

"We will be looking into the possibility of making a claim for compensation because of the amount of business lost," he said,

"The problem is that we will never recover that business, because for every person who said they would come back to Darlington to shop, there will be many more who won't."

Electricity network operator NEDL has not named the contractor responsible, but said the damage was caused in Haughton Road.

Several schools were forced to close and many businesses sent staff home early.

In an unrelated incident, 200 homes in the Eastbourne area of Darlington were left without power for an hour yesterday, after a cable was damaged during excavation work in the area