Stannington: Gas restored to every home after leak leaves thousands cut off

People and businesses in the suburbs of Stannington, Malin Bridge and Hillsborough were cut off on Friday, December 2, when a water pipe burst and leaked into the gas main, and they were forced to endure sub-zero temperatures without central heating and hot water.

Gas supplier Cadent has praised the “monumental effort” of the engineers who have pumped more than one million litres of water out of the gas pipes and reconnected all the affected properties over the last two weeks.

The company has also said customers can claim £130 in compensation for each day they were cut off, while businesses are entitled to £210 a day.

Yorkshire Water said it fixed the water leak “within a few hours” and it will conduct an internal investigation to figure out what caused the pipe to rupture.

The asbestos-cement water main which burst was installed in the 1970s. But Yorkshire Water said these pipes are commonly used across the country and have a lifespan of 90 to 100 years.

Richard Sansom, Director of the Cadent network in South Yorkshire, said: “After a monumental effort by a big team from Cadent and other agencies, we have gas restored now to every property.

“It’s an incredible achievement, working day and night since this started two weeks ago, and in freezing temperatures.

“I want to offer a huge thanks to everyone in Stannington, Malin Bridge, Hillsborough and other areas impacted by this.”

He added: “We can confirm that more than 3,000 properties were impacted, whether by loss of gas completely, poor pressures or damage caused to boilers and appliances.

“We know there are still pockets of water moving around, under your feet, which is why some properties that we’ve put back on gas are intermittently going off again.

“This is part of the reason for us maintaining a presence in the area, for a good while yet, so we can act quickly when this happens.

“We are also very conscious that, for some people, the water has impacted their boilers and other appliances.

"We are working with everyone who has found themselves in this position, to make sure the arrangements are made to fix these, or replace them.”