Water removed from gas lines a year on from outage

Ozzy O'Shea (left) said it was "fantastic to see the community come together so quickly, and so resolutely to support those in need"

Work is taking place to remove the final traces of water from the gas network one year on from a major outage in Leicestershire.

More than 2,700 homes were affected as a major incident was declared by Leicestershire County Council at the end of January 2024 in Ratby and Kirby Muxloe.

A burst water main flooded the system with a "significant amount of water" which took days to clear, Cadent Gas said.

The county council said the current work to make sure any final droplets of water were eliminated from the gas lines was to ensure residents did not have any additional supply issues.

Cadent worked to pump more than 21,997 gallons (100,000 litres) of water out of the gas pipes and provided more than 1,000 cookers and heating appliances for residents while the work took place.

Gas supplies were restored to all homes by 6 February.

Cadent engineers pumped large volumes of water from gas pipes daily to fix the issues

Ozzy O'Shea, who represents Ratby on the county council, was personally affected by the outage.

O'Shea, the authority's cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "This incident was awful for residents of Ratby and parts of Kirby Muxloe, but it was fantastic to see the community come together so quickly, and so resolutely to support those in need."

Richard Sansom, network director for Cadent in the East Midlands, said just half an egg cup of water could stop a gas network from working as it should.

He added: "To have so many homes and businesses without gas in the middle of winter is something we hope never happens, but unfortunately it did.

"I am incredibly proud of the work that we did to restore gas supplies in Ratby and Kirby Muxloe.

"But I am even more proud – and grateful – for the way that the local community rallied round in support of each other, and also in support of our engineers who worked around the clock to get the issue dealt with."

A Severn Trent spokesperson said: "A year has passed, and we'd like to say thank you for the community coming together as all the partners involved tackled what was a complex issue."