Gas compensation amount 'pathetic', laundrette owner says

Karen Ecobichon-Grey said she lost hundreds of pounds from the gas outage

A laundrette owner said the compensation offered by a gas company after a loss of supply was "pathetic".

Island Energy (IE) said it would refund gas customers in Jersey a month's standing charges after the loss of supply in October 2023.

Up to 4,500 homes and businesses were without gas for about a week after the company's plant shut down due to a software failure.

Karen Ecobichon-Grey said she lost hundreds of pounds from the gas outage.

IE said the company did a thorough investigation, but it could not afford to give thousands of pounds worth of compensation.

Some customers and businesses will receive £11.56 as a "goodwill" payment, and each business will be assessed on case by case basis.

Ms Ecobichon-Grey said she had been going round in circles trying to claim compensation.

She said: "I would try and put in a claim, if I could get hold of anyone local at the gas company, but when you call them you get transferred to the Isle of Man or Glasgow, so it's hard to speak to anyone who knows about the situation."

IE said the company did a thorough investigation, but it could not afford to give thousands of pounds of compensation

IE CEO Jo Cox said "unfortunately" incidents did occur which affected large businesses.

She said: "Flights in and out of the island, ferries in and out of the island - there is consistent disruption to all those services, not just gas.

"My point is, there is often disruption to key services, and those people do not offer compensation to those customers."

'Paltry sum'

Ms Ecobichon-Grey said she was "not impressed with that at all".

"They should look at how much businesses lost each day and cover 75% of that," she said.

When BBC Jersey spoke with members of the public in St Helier one islander said the money was "an absolutely paltry sum and unacceptable".

Another member of the public said: "£11 per person for all the loss and difficulty they suffered, that's not enough is it."

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