Hundreds of North Bedfordshire homes left without gas overnight

An estimated 1,500 homes were left without gas on Thursday night after a gas pipeline was damaged.
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The incident affected Wilstead and the surrounding villages.

One resident told the Tines & Citizen: “My friend and I talked to the ‘Cadent’ (the national gas network company) representatives. He told us that they divert manpower resources form all over the country to work the gas problem.

“It’s not the repair to the main that the big issue, it’s establishing that every one of the 1,300 properties is turned OFF before they can start to turn the gas supply back on.

“They then have to go to each and every property, turn ON its supply and ensure each appliance at that property is safe (no leaks, piolet light failure etc)!

“There’s Cadent vans and staff everywhere Wilstead, Wixhams, Elstow, Cotton End and all points between! Must be costing somebody a fortune.”

A Cadent spokesman said that over 60 engineers were on site.

Incident controller Chris Rison added: “I’d like to thank everyone for their patience during this incident, especially as it has been so cold overnight. I am happy to say that our engineers are now in Wilstead starting to safely switch gas supplies back on.

“Please be patient as it will take us a number of hours to visit every single property in Wilstead. We hope to get as many people back on gas as soon as we can.

“We ask that residents check ID cards before allowing anyone into your home. Our initial priority will be to turn the gas supplies on to the elderly, sick and those with very young babies first.

“We ask that people are in but not to worry if you are not. We will keep on visiting homes late into this evening. If we still haven’t been able to gain access to safely switch on you