National Grid responds to MP Theresa Villier's criticism over East Barnet gas cut (From Times Series)
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National Grid responds to MP Theresa Villier's criticism over East Barnet gas cut
2:23pm Wednesday 6th January 2010 in
NATIONAL Grid has responded to criticism of its handling of the gas cut crisis in East Barnet last month.
The Barnet Times was inundated with complaints from residents affected by the gas cut, between December 20 and 31 last year, after a burst water main flooded the gas supply system with water.
Many residents did not blame the company for the situation but bitterly complained about what they saw as a lack of information and poor customer service, with some calling the response "chaos", "a PR disaster" and "an utter fiasco".
Chipping Barnet MP, Theresa Villiers also expressed her dissatisfaction, saying the supplier “could have done better” for residents.
National Grid spokesman Antony Quarrell said that National Grid had worked continuously to restore gas supplies to East Barnet residents.
“The process was complex and our engineers had to remove large amounts of water in the gas mains,” he said.
“This was not a straightforward procedure due to the movement of water around the network and the water freezing on a number of occasions.
“At the height of the incident we had 200 engineers and support staff including customer relations officers on site. Many of the staff had been drafted in from different parts of the country.
“We sought to keep residents informed about the situation and set up an incident room at St Mary’s Primary School.”
In response to Mrs Villiers' calls for Mr Quarrell said the company keeps its processes under review at all times but did not commit to a specific assessment of the East Barnet situation.
He also said that regular updates about the situation were posted on National Grid's website and letters were sent out to residents to give information that was as up to date as possible.
He added: “We are sorry if people did not receive letters or if they did not find information in the letters helpful.”
Residents were also supplied with portable heaters during the crisis, although there was a shortage of these at times.
Comments(2)
andy mc
says...
8:21pm Thu 7 Jan 10
Your experience bears no relation whatsoever to what I, friends and neighbours endured.
Having also suffered a 19 hour electricity cut off, I contacted Theresa Villiers in desperation, her office were very helpful, challenged National grid and Barnet council, and communicated superbly.
And before you ask, I am not a member of the tory party, and did not vote for her last time round in protest at the tory treatment of Barnet FC, but credit this time where its due.
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The McTeare family were among those who complained
Engineers try to fix the problem in Crescent Road
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kenbrookes says...
4:48pm Wed 6 Jan 10
I cannot praise sufficiently the staff and engineers of National Grid especially, but also those of other organisations, who came from all over the country, left their families to fend for themselves over Christmas and worked all hours in appalling conditions to get things going again.
The Council were slow to get going, but they too, once they fully appreciated the situation, did a fine job. I felt sorry, however, for the volunteers delivering Christmas dinners to those unable to prepare their own. We'd explained to two separate Council representatives that we had no need of this, as we cook with electricity, but nevertheless we were on the delivery list. Even so, the volunteer said that we'd been the first of six addresses at which she'd called where someone had answered the door.
Admittedly my wife and I are both pensioners and she is registered handicapped, so we were on a priority list, but our neighbours' experience was little different from our own: skilled workers, often with no previous knowledge of the area, working well beyond their contracts for the public benefit. I'm still a working journalist, but at no time did I try to use this fact to gain extra advantage, nor do I believe there was extra advantage to be gained.
There are always gripers, not excepting MPs wishing to garner a little extra publicity, and no doubt there have been things to gripe about, but I could not fault the engineers, the information handlers, the social services or the overall control of the local situation. Whether there was a design or operational fault in the gas and water pipelaying is another matter entirely, which we'll learn in due course.