MORE than 500 homes and businesses in Malvern were without electricity on Wednesday morning.

The power cut followed damage to an 11,000 volt power cable.

It caused problems for companies on the Enigma Business Park, which were without electricity for anything from 10 minutes to over an hour.

Neale Plastics and Synthotec were both badly affected. Greville Neale, of Neale Plastics, said electricity cuts were bad news, not just because of the damaging effects on the manufacturing process and machinery, but because of the knock-on effects caused by phones and emails not working.

On Wednesday, as a consequence of the phone system being down, a call from a customer was missed and a fully-loaded delivery van made a wasted journey of almost 200 miles.

Central Networks, the company responsible for the power cables, apologised to its business and domestic customers.

"Our first priority is to get customers re-connected as soon as possible," said Jane Branscombe, spokeswoman for Central Networks.

She said the power failure, caused when a supply cable was damaged by an outside contractor, was reported at around 9am.

Of the 517 customers affected, the majority - 481 - had their supply back after ten minutes. The remainder were all re-connected after one hour and 40 minutes.