Call for better communication from Jersey gas company

Sandra Buckley said she only found out why her gas was off because her daughter told her

Some gas customers in Jersey say there has been a lack of communication since their supply was lost.

Island Energy customers have been without gas since Saturday when a software failure caused an island-wide shutdown.

Sandra Buckley, a pensioner, said she only realised her gas was not working because her daughter told her.

The company said communication had been difficult due to many customers not having up-to-date contact details.

It said it could now take up to two weeks to restore gas supplies to its 4,500 customers.

Ms Buckley said: "The big concern of mine is the lack of communication, no one actually from Jersey Gas or Island Energy has contacted me.

"All we know is what we read. No one's been round, how are they choosing who they go to see."

Ian Solomon said he expected to have to wait a week for his supplies to be restored

Ian Solomon also said communication with the company had been difficult and said he had found out about the loss of supply through his wife and the Jersey police's social media.

"Nothing from the gas company itself... it's just poor management," he said.

On Monday, Mr Solomon said an engineer from the company had come round to check they had turned the gas off at the mains and they would return to turn it back on for them.

"On the letter is says do not turn it on until the gas man has come round to the house to turn it on for you, so we're gonna be waiting another week," he said.

The company recommended customers make sure their supply is turned off at the meter, to make sure all gas appliances are switched off, and then to let the firm know.

'It's tricky'

Jo Cox, Island Energy chief executive, said many customers were uncontactable due to their contact details not being up-to-date.

She said: "We don't have mobile numbers and email addresses for every single customer, so what we'd ideally like to do is do a text first to everybody to say 'your gas supply has been affected'.

"We've actually only got correct email addresses for about 40% of our customer base, and only about 10% of that base have mobile numbers, so it's tricky to get to everybody."

Ms Cox said the company had used many platforms to give its customers updates as an alternative.

"What we've been doing is using radio channels... we've been doing social media, we've been working with Jersey police, we've been working with the States of Jersey, we've tried to get out to every single media channel we possibly can," she said.