TRAVELLERS in York endured a cold, dark night without electricity after emergency generators failed.

A number of caravans at the Clifton Moor site lost power on Monday evening after a temporary generator supplied by City of York Council broke down.

Engineers arrived at the site yesterday and managed to restore the supply to the caravans - after 17 hours without power.

A recurring problem with underground cables meant that last week mains electricity to about half of the 23 caravan pitches at the site was cut off altogether.

City of York Council brought in a number of generators to restore power until repairs to the mains cables could be completed.

But one of the generators stopped working at about 7.30pm on Monday, leaving six of the caravan pitches completely without electricity overnight.

Julie Smith said: "I have a 12-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy, and I had to wake her up at 6am this morning and get her ready for school by candlelight.

"It's just a disgusting way to treat us. We pay ground rent just like anyone else.

"We couldn't get heat or light last night. It's nearly Christmas, and I couldn't even put my Christmas lights on.

"No one should have to live like this.

"Even when the generators are working they don't supply enough power for us.

"We can't cook food and heat our caravans at the same time, for example, and if too many people turn on their heaters all at once everything stops working."

Julie's sister-in-law, Coralene, said: "Even when the generators are on they're very noisy, and my children cannot sleep.

"The site was so dark last night that we couldn't even see our own caravan steps."

She added that she had been told the mains supply could take up to four months to repair.

A City of York Council spokeswoman said engineers had done everything they could to restore the power supply quickly.

She said: "When the normal power supply went off last week we arranged for two generators to power the site.

"Unfortunately, they failed on Monday evening and the engineers were on site yesterday to resolve the problem."

NEDL said: "We are liaising with the council, and are advising them about what they need to do to resolve the situation."

Updated: 10:17 Wednesday, December 08, 2004