A public drop-in session will allow Whitehaven residents to quiz an electricity company after six failures in five weeks left hundreds of homes without power.

Electricity North West is holding a public meeting at Whitehaven Golf Club, Red Lonning, between 4pm and 6.30pm on Thursday.

The company's representatives will be on hand to answer any questions from concerned residents.

"You may have experienced intermittent power cuts in Whitehaven recently and we want to provide you with an update on how we’re working hard to fix the fault," said an Electricity North West spokesman.

"The recent power cuts have been caused by a transient fault and the nature of these faults makes them very difficult to identify.

"We have installed specialist equipment to our network to try and locate the fault to allow us to carry out a full repair to ensure you receive a reliable supply of power to your home or business.

"We would like to invite you to a public drop in session on Thursday to discuss the recent interruptions to your power supply and answer any questions you may have."

Power cuts hit houses at Harras Moor, The Highlands, Red Lonning, Hillcrest, Victoria Road and Rannerdale Drive.

The latest failure, which occurred on Wednesday, August 30, affected 750 homes and left some properties without power for nearly three hours.

Power was lost at around 6.30pm and returned to 450 homes at 8.20pm. Other properties had to wait until 9.15pm before it came back.

Transient faults occur only temporarily before the power returns, making them hard for engineers to track. Hundreds of homes were hit by five other power cuts on August 20, 17 and 13 and July 29 and 24.