Stannington: Residents to quiz Yorkshire Water on repairs delay

Water from a burst pipe leaked into the gas main

A public meeting is being held later in Stannington to discuss delays in repairing damaged gas appliances caused by a burst water main.

Some residents are still waiting for appliances to be fixed or replaced following the incident in December.

Yorkshire Water said it acknowledged residents' frustrations and confirmed it would be sending a representative.

The meeting is being held at 19:00 BST at The Peacock pub.

Mary Aston says residents have been waiting long enough for repairs

Almost 3,000 homes were left without gas on 2 December as a result of the burst.

Hundreds of domestic gas appliances such as boilers and fires were affected by water entering the gas main, with many residents seeing water gushing out of their cookers and gas meters.

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Mary Aston, who has called the meeting, said she has only this week been reimbursed for her damaged cooker.

She said: "It's an absolute nightmare. All we want is for Yorkshire Water to get this sorted. We are delighted they have agreed to attend.

"People understand that accidents happen but this should not still be going on several months after the incident."

Ms Aston said, as of 15 April when figures were last collated, 200 boilers were still out of action.

'Frustrating' wait

Confirming it would be attending the public meeting, a Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: "We understand how frustrating it must be to still have a damaged gas appliance after the incident in December, and we're working closely with our loss adjustors, Charles Taylor, to do everything we can to get issues resolved as quickly as possible.

"After Cadent (the distributor) handed over the gas appliance claims to us on 1 March, we've been in touch with each customer to establish what support they needed and we're on with resolving the outstanding issues."

The spokesperson said to help speed up the process Yorkshire Water had asked some customers to arrange their own gas safety checks with a gas safe engineer, the cost of which would be refunded.

If this was not possible, the company would "find an alternative solution", the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said it would continue to work closely with Cadent and its contractor, adding it hopes to have the remaining appliance issues sorted soon.

Yorkshire Water said it also intends to arrange drop-in sessions next week in Stannington to discuss individual claims.