A LANDLADY says she's completely in the dark - about why her pub lights keep going out.

Whenever the street light outside the Red Lion in Chinnor goes out, off goes all the power in the pub.

But landlady Lynne Fear says she's now fed up with all the jokes about the pub taking too much power out of the streetlight system - and wants a solution to the problem.

"We've heard all the comments you can think of, but the customers still find them funny," said Ms Fear who runs the pub with her partner Stephen Malvin and son Steven Finch.

"But for us it's no joke - when the lights go off, so does the heating and the microwaves.

"At least our customers do get a candlelit dinner, when we can manage the cooking."

The last time it happened regulars said they saw sparks coming from a telegraph pole opposite, then the street light went off.

The pub was plunged into darkness, with the only light coming from the log fire. Ms Fear praised the speed with which workmen from Eastern Electricity and BT were out to fix the faults and the pub had its lights back on in about two hours.

Eastern Electricity is examining the problem.

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