shut-off.

Belco says the power has to be temporarily cut next Thursday so engineers can do vital repairs.

But firms complained the shut-off should have been on a weekend, so they would not lose a day of work.

On May 7, Belco announced St. George's would suffer the cut on Friday, May 14.

Top Square, Convict Bay, east Water Street and Shinbone Alley would be affected.

After complaints firms did not get enough notice, they switched the date to Thursday. But this has failed to pacify business people.

"It's frustrating, having a large company like that walking over the small guy,'' said Mr. Steve Hollis, owner of Ocean Sails on Water Street. "All our talking to Belco seems to get us nowhere.

"Forty-odd people are not going to get paid for that day because the businesses can't open. We can ill afford to lose a day. The reason they're doing it on a weekday is that they don't want to pay the guys overtime. I doubt whether they would do this on Front Street in Hamilton or anywhere else.'' Belco spokeswoman Ms Linda Smith said work needed to be done on a faulty underground cable that caused a power cut about two weeks ago. It could cause other cuts, she said. The main reason for doing repairs on a weekday was that at the weekend far more residents would be affected. Another reason was to save on overtime.