It's disastrous, say residents left without gas

Herne Bay resident Matt Barnard said he has had no gas since Saturday

Hundreds of properties in Herne Bay have been left without gas since Saturday.

Gas supplier SGN said 1,750 households had no gas supplies due to pipe damage caused by a third party.

The company said on Tuesday it had fixed the pipe and had 382 properties left to restore, but residents remained frustrated.

Matt Barnard has had no gas since Saturday and said the situation was "disastrous".

He said: "There are still hundreds and hundreds of families left without hot water without heating.

"There are fragile people. There are old people. There are people with children who need to wash nappies.

"Nobody can do any of those things."

Brenda and Colin Nelson said their heating was back on after three days.

Brenda and Colin Nelson, in Herne Bay, say their heating is back on after three days

They said they went to bed early with one heater on.

Mrs Nelson added: "It's been pretty nippy round here for quite some time now."

James Mooney, SGN's operations director, said he was confident a majority of homes would be reconnected by Tuesday night.

A SGN spokesperson said: "We're continuing to restore gas supplies in Herne Bay and we've made great progress overnight, with 690 properties to go."

"We're focusing on restoring the supplies of our vulnerable customers on the Priority Services Register (PSR) first and our engineers are continuing to visit properties as quickly as we can to carry out vital safety checks."

James Mooney said a team of 80 people was working to resolve the issue

Air has got into the gas system so engineers are having to visit every impacted property to restore the supply.

SGN is asking residents to not attempt to restore their own gas supplies and wait for their engineers.

The company has set up a customer centre at St Peter's Church for vulnerable customers on the PSR.

The hub, where customers can pick up heaters and hot plates, is open from 09:00 to 21:00 GMT.

SGN added that anyone without gas for more than 24 hours would receive compensation as credit on their next bill.