Power firm Belco has apologised after soot from its plant landed on nearby homes.

A Belco spokesman said: “We would like to sincerely apologise for this incident and undertake to quickly do everything we can to mitigate the impact to the surrounding environment.

“Our dedicated Occupational Health Safety and Environment team are actively working to collect evidence and information about this incident so that we can work to resolve any issues at affected properties.”

He was speaking after householders in the Berkeley Hill area of Pembroke complained after soot blew on to their properties in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The spokesman said the problem happened after four engines at the North Power Station were shut down as engineers investigated bad smells in the area and restarted over the past week.

He said: “When the last engine was restarted, a build-up of residue from the initial commissioning of the engines was emitted through the exhaust stack.

“Such occurrences should not occur in future now that the engines have been fully commissioned and are running at full capacity.”

Affected householders should e-mail Belco’s OHSE office at ohse@belco.bm with their name, address and phone number.

Belco said people should also take photographs and video of affected areas where possible.

The spokesman said people should only attempt to clean affected areas if Belco had collected property details and photographs.

He added that members of the OHSE team would be in touch to discuss the next steps.

The spokesman said: “At Belco we take the health and safety of our employees and the community very seriously and we will ensure that we work to resolve this situation to the highest environmental standard.”