Hotel clock ticked off by power cut

TIME stood still at the Balmoral Hotel yesterday after tram workers cut off the power.

The hotel’s landmark clock stopped at 9am after an electricity line was damaged by contactors. Around 100 city centre businesses were left without power for about an hour and a half before it was restored at 10.30am.

St Andrew’s House, the Scottish Government headquarters, in Regent Road, was among the properties hit.

A spokeswoman for the Balmoral said the clock remained stuck at 9am despite power being restored to the rest of the building, but that time was soon ticking normally.

A ScottishPower spokeswoman said: “We apologise for the inconvenience but the fault was caused by another party working in the area.”

The city council confirmed the power cut had been caused by tram project workers.