A farm owner has lost patience after suffering more than 30 years of incessant power cuts.

Heinz Astor, 78, is demanding electricity firm Seeboard invest money to improve the supply serving his home at Barnsnape Farm in Cuckfield.

He said he had suffered at least six power failures a year since moving to the farm in Broxmead Lane 32 years ago.

Mr Astor said: "It is not healthy to sit in the cold for hours at my age. Sometimes the power is off for 24 hours.

"I'm worried about falling downstairs in the darkness. Then there is all the fuss about getting candles, going without hot food and having no TV."

On one occasion Seeboard paid for Mr Astor and his wife to stay overnight at the Gatwick Hilton Hotel after he protested about a power cut.

He believes the firm is not doing enough for fix the long-term power supply problems.

He said: "The engineers told me the cables were at least 70 years old so the system is bound to break down.

"Seeboard doesn't seem to want to spend any money on it.

"I have lost count of the number of times it has had to put a big generator on my land to keep things ticking over."

A spokesman for Seeboard blamed falling trees for the majority of the problems.

He said two power cuts in autumn 2000 were due to the severe storms of October 30.

Three of four significant failures last year were due to falling trees. The other was caused by a cable fault in the underground network.

In May this year, a falling tree broke an overhead line and the latest power cut was caused by severe winds.

The spokesman said: "Apart from bad weather, the only link between the different incidents is damage caused by trees.

"While lines are checked regularly and tree-cutting takes place, these are factors largely beyond the company's control.

"Nevertheless, we apologise for the inconvenience."