A POWER cut left Widnes residents in the dark for up to nine hours last night.

People living in West Bank were left without electricity due to an underground fault on Irwell Street.

Residents said the lights went out just as they were about to start making the tea.

One woman said: "You don't realise how much you take electricity for granted until you haven't got it.

"We didn't have any hot water, we couldn't cook our dinner or watch the telly.

"We had to search around for some candles."

Some residents said they had been looking forward to watching yesterday's royal visit by the Queen and the Duchess of Sussex to Spike Island on the television.

A spokesman for SP Energy Networks said: “Unfortunately we had a fault on an underground cable that affected around 50 properties.

"In order to restore supplies, our engineers had to dig out the damaged section of cable and replace it. "Engineers worked late in to the night to get the repair completed.

"Approximately 20 properties were reconnected just before 1am with the remaining properties reconnected by 2.40am.

"We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Our team worked as quickly as possible to fix the fault and restore supplies.”