THE foodstore Lidl is still counting the cost of a power cut which affected residents and businesses in Bordon last Friday.

The town was plunged into darkness and was without power for around 12 hours from 11-45 pm the previous evening because of an underground cable fault.

Residents of Chalet Hill, Lilac Close, Savile Crescent, Forest Road and Varna Road were affected, as well as Lidl, the vetsÕ surgery, the library and The Herald office.

Manager of Lidl, Linda Harris, described the power cut as a ÒnightmareÓ.

ÒWe lost customers because Friday is one of our busiest days. People did not know why we werenÕt open so many of them went to Lidl in Farnham or to Somerfield (in the Forest Centre).Ó

It was not just customers that the foodstore lost, though. Because it could not open at its usual time of 9 am, delivery stock had to be thrown out along with chilled and frozen food because it had defrosted.

ÒWe are still counting the cost of the power cut. We did not open until 11-30 am on Friday,Ó said Linda Harris.

ÒThis is about the third or fourth power cut that we have had since we have been here and they always seem to happen around Thursday and Friday nights.

ÒIt would have been even worse if it had happened on a Thursday morning because we have people queuing up outside the shop to get in to look at all the new offers.Ó

The vetsÕ surgery in Heathcote Road experienced problems because appointments made on the computer could not be accessed.

A spokesperson for the surgery said: ÒWe just had to take notes and phone people back.Ó

Staff at Bordon library, however, did not even have the luxury of using the telephone because the phones are connected to the libraryÕs power supply.

Supervisor Bridget Paine said: ÒPeople couldnÕt even ring up to renew books because the phones werenÕt working. We finally managed to open up at about 11-10 am.Ó

A spokeswoman for Southern Electric told The Herald: ÒWe apologise for any inconvenience caused to customers but it was an underground cable fault.

ÒThe fault was reported to us at around 11-45 pm on Thursday night. We sent out an engineer who did an initial check but could not find anything.

ÒWe then sent out some jointers at about 5 am. They located the fault and set about replacing the fuses.Ó

The 30 affected customers had power again at around 11-10 am.