More than 60 properties are expected to be hit by a power cut this weekend.

Electricity North West has planned the outage for Sunday (May 16), with up to 68 customers in Whitehaven expected to be affected.

The power cut has been scheduled to allow engineers to carry out necessary work on the network safely, and without risk of harm.

Clive Wilkinson, operations director at Electricity North West, said: “A lot of the work we do happens in the background and customers aren’t always affected, we even have ‘live lines’ teams who can work on live electricity equipment without turning power off, however, sometimes we do have to turn people’s power off so that our engineers can work on the network safely.

“Planned power cuts allow us to carry out vital work such as maintaining the network, carrying out repairs and installing new connections, which ensures that homes and businesses continue receive the best supply possible in the long term.

“With every planned power cut, we’ll always give at least 10 days’ notice, won’t turn power off before 9am and electricity will be back on before 5pm.

“Unfortunately, not all power cuts are planned and can happen for a variety of reasons with no warning because of the weather, vandalism or even birds hitting overhead lines.

"Our teams are on hand 24/7 365 days a year and should anybody ever need any more information during a power cut, whether planned or not, they can follow Electricity North West on Twitter or Facebook for updates, or call us free on 105.”

Postcodes that could be impacted include CA28 6QS; CA28 6QR; CA28 6QQ; CA28 6QN; CA28 6QL; and CA28 6PZ.

To find out more, including plans for other power cuts, visit the Electricity North West website at www.enwl.co.uk.