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Residents' frustration at long wait for appliance repairs after gas main flood

PA Media Stannington water main burstPA Media
The burst in December sent water rushing through the gas main into people's homes
  • A water burst flooded the gas main and damaged hundreds of appliances in Sheffield last December
  • Many residents in Stannington were left with no heating or cooking facilities
  • Four months later, many damaged appliances have still not been repaired or replaced, according to residents
  • Cadent Gas and Yorkshire Water said they understood people's frustration and were working to resolve the issue

Residents in parts of Sheffield have said they are still waiting for their gas appliances to be repaired, months after miles of gas pipes were flooded following a water main burst.

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

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

Yorkshire Water and distributor Cadent Gas said they were working as quickly as possible to fix the issues.

It took over two weeks to reconnect all the households left without gas just before Christmas.

Stannington resident Mary Aston said at the time people were sure the damage to their domestic appliances would soon be dealt with.

But she added: "Four months on, while I have a new boiler and a new gas fire was fitted on 8 March, I am still waiting for my cooker."

Meanwhile, fellow Stannington resident Mavis Martin said she was still waiting for a new gas fire.

"Yorkshire Water needs to stop wriggling and get on with it and help us out," she said.

"I would like to see my gas fire sorted within the next month. It is still too long, but I would be patient with that."

Mary Aston
Mary Aston said she was still waiting for her cooker to be replaced

Residents said one major issue was having to deal with a number of different organisations to get the situation resolved.

Until 1 March, Cadent Gas and its contractor had been responsible for repairs, but after that date responsibility was passed to Yorkshire Water and its loss adjuster.

Ms Aston insisted she would not speed up matters by claiming on her household insurance.

"I am not having my premiums increase because of an incident created by Yorkshire Water," she said.

Water in pipe
The gas network in Stannington was flooded with water on 2 December

Cadent Gas said it had arranged about 5,000 visits by engineers to homes in the area and had carried out 1,500 repairs and replacements.

The company said it was still working on calls logged before 1 March and anticipated those repairs would be completed by mid-April.

A Cadent spokesperson said they understood people's "frustrations".

"We apologise to them for the delay and assure them we are working to resolve them as soon as we can," they added.

Yorkshire Water said it was doing everything it could.

"We understand how frustrating it must be to still have a damaged gas appliance not working," a company spokesperson said.

Loss adjusters would be in touch to agree a process and people were being asked "where possible" to arrange their own gas safety checks, they said.

"We'll be reimbursing any customers who need to do this," the spokesperson added.

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