Hundreds of people face second weekend without power

Hundreds of households across Scotland are beginning a second weekend without power after Storm Arwen.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said that as of 17:30 about 350 customers, either single properties or small rural groups of homes, were still without power.

The majority of homes still without power are in Aberdeenshire, with small numbers in Perthshire, Angus and Moray.

SSEN said it planned to reconnect the remaining homes on Saturday.

All homes across southern and central Scotland affected by the power outages have now been reconnected, say SP Energy Networks.

About 5,100 home remain cut off in the north-east of England and Cumbria, where energy firm Northern Powergrid has apologised for poor communication with affected households.

Mark Rough, SSEN director of operations, said: "Our teams continued to make really good progress throughout Friday night and they're working really hard, in worsening weather conditions, to restore the last remaining customers throughout the course of today.

"Our localised network has sustained significant damage and through a combination of repairs and mobile generation we will continue to work until all power is restored.

"We have over 700 field staff carrying working with support from other network operators and contractors from across the UK and Ireland, and everyone is making a real effort to reconnect the final homes as quickly and safely as possible."

Meanwhile it has emerged that staff from the Queen's Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire have been involved in helping local people affected by the power cuts.

They have been delivering hot water to cottages that were cut off, and providing soup to elderly local residents.

The castle laundry also took in washing for those in need from more remote areas.

Louise Yule, of the Halfpenny farm animal sanctuary near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire told BBC Good Morning Scotland, they were still without electricity eight days on from the storm.

The sanctuary - home to a range of animals including reptiles, hamsters and guinea pigs - has been donated generators to allow them to pump water from its well and provide some heat.

She said: "It's been very stressful.

"To begin with it was only the vulnerable small animals we've been able to keep warm but you are running around making sure the generators keep running and the animals have plenty water and food."

The sanctuary is spending up to £100 a day keeping the generators running.

Jim Savege, chief executive of Aberdeenshire Council, said it still had hundreds of volunteers out checking on people.

He said: "I know a lot of people who have animals have had a really tough time.

"We declared a major incident at 10:32 on Saturday morning and have been working flat-out since then - the main issue is the scale of the challenge facing SSEN.

"We're going to be moving into the recovery phase this weekend, getting people back on their feet and taking stock."

The power firms' response to the damage caused by Storm Arwen is to be reviewed by energy regulator Ofgem.

The watchdog's review will focus on the resilience of the system and the network companies' emergency response.

The power firms will be paying compensation to those affected by the prolonged power cuts.