SHOPS were plunged into darkness and traders lost business when a powercut descended on Great Missenden.

The cut happened from 4.10am until 8am and then again from 9.24am until 1.21pm on Thursday.

Paul Lewis, manager of Somerfield, in Station Approach, said: "We lost lots of business. We lost about £3,000 this morning. My deputy had to get up early as all the alarms went off, but it came back on hours later, and went off again."

He said they would have lost thousands of pounds worth of stock had the power been off any longer.

"All we could do was protect the stock and put it into back up, but that only lasts for about four hours."

Nalin Kotecha, owner of Samways Newsagent, Station Approach, said: "We didn't trade until 2pm. We lost a lot of business. Because we were closed, people didn't turn up later on.

"We obviously didn't know when it was coming back on, so we were unable to put signs out."

About 15 customers were affected by the power cut including houses in Grimms Hill, the High Street and Bernards Close. The train station was not affected.

A spokesman for operator 24seven, formerly Eastern Electric, said: "We had a problem with a link box under a pavement which was faulty and it blew a fuse at the sub station at the High Street.

"A few hours later the link box itself blew up and blew the cover off. It was caused by age and deterioration. It was underground. We apologise for any inconvenience."