Stannington: People left without gas for a week in freezing temperatures remain ‘resilient’

The gas supply for around 2,000 homes in the suburbs of Stannington and Hillsborough was cut off on Friday when a water pipe burst and leaked into the gas main.

Olivia Blake, MP for Sheffield Hallam, said she visited locals today who were going through “a horrible ordeal” and enduring freezing temperatures but they remained “very resilient”.

Gas firm Cadent said more than 40 per cent of homes have had their supplies restored and it was aiming to reconnect all properties by the close of the weekend.

Ms Blake said: “A lot of people understand what the issue is and are really grateful for the work Cadent are doing.

“But obviously they're really cold and it's not pleasant at all. This is probably the worst possible time of year for something like this to happen.

“I'm clearly very worried about some people and making sure that if anyone is vulnerable they are contacting the council hotline.”

Sheffield Council has been handing out blankets and electric heaters, providing people with places where they can get warm and checking on the vulnerable.

Ms Blake also said “serious questions” needed to be asked about the incident, which caused thousands of people to lose their gas supply.

Cadent said engineers had removed over 750,000 litres of water from its gas pipes after Yorkshire Water stopped the leak.

Richard Sansom, d irector of the Cadent network in South Yorkshire, said: “It’s highly unusual to see this volume of water pass through the gas meter and into homes.

“We’re finding that almost every property impacted has water in the internal pipes and all that has to come out.

“We’ll continue to pump water out and – if we can make good progress on that – we should have many more homes back on gas.

“Having been here all week, and speaking to our customers every day, we know how incredibly difficult it’s been to be without gas.”