FURIOUS Castle residents have been left in the dark following a spate of electricity blackouts for more than a week.

Since last Wednesday night, houses in Robert Street, Frida Crescent, Riverside Park and Alfred Street have suffered with fluctuating levels of electricity with black outs lasting up to three hours on some occasions.

Lesley Humphries, of Roberts Street, is furious with the situation and says the regularity of electricity blackouts in Castle is beyond a joke.

She said: "It's been happening on and off since last year when there was an explosion at the transformer.

"You don't mind once a year because there are problems but it's happened three times since last week. On Sunday it was out from 8.20pm until 11.40pm."

Ray Sharp, of Frida Crescent, is also unhappy about the situation and says neighbours are considering cancelling their contracts with their electricity suppliers.

He said: "It's just not on. For the last three nights we've had black outs. I've got six timers in the house and have to keep resetting them all.

"I'm worried about the gas boiler because the gas supply is fine but it could blow if the electricity is not working properly."

A spokeswoman for ScottishPower said the cause of blackouts is due to a fuse problem with the sub station in Darwin Street.

She said: "We are presently operating on two sub stations instead of three. Engineers are working on the problem and it should be resolved by the end of this week."