Rothbury community pulls together in crisis

Feb 6 2009 by Brian Daniel, The Journal

A CRISIS which has seen people in a Northumberland village without gas for three days during the cold snap appeared to be nearing an end last night.

All 1,000 homes at Rothbury were left without gas on Monday morning, just as the snowy weather hit, following a major fault caused by water in village pipes. A multi-agency response swung into gear involving gas engineers, emergency services, council workers, Red Cross and the WRVS.

A respite centre was established in Rothbury Middle School and heaters, hot plates and blankets were distributed to the elderly and vulnerable.

Arrangements were made at the village swimming pool and golf club for people to have showers, while police were providing high visibility reassurance patrols including officers on horseback.

But the crisis worsened on Tuesday night when the village electricity supply went off for more than five hours in places, following a fault in overhead power cables. By 3pm yesterday, engineers had restored gas to 868 homes, having called at a further 37 properties where there was no answer. Around 90 homes in the Cragside area were still without gas as they are served by one of the pipes to have taken in water.

Efforts were ongoing to supply gas to those homes, with engineers having worked through Wednesday night to tackle the fault there.

Northern Gas Networks communications director John O’Grady said: “We have removed more than 1,000 litres of water from the gas mains system so far and have a little more to get out.

“We have had a remote-controlled camera inside the gas mains system to find the source of the water and have found a damaged section of gas main.”

Steven Bridgett, district and county councillor for Rothbury, last night did not expect those 90 properties to be reconnected by the end of the day and but it would be a bonus if they were. He said: “I think it is not only just a relief to me, it is a relief to everyone in the village. They are getting warmth now, particularly the elderly and the more vulnerable members of the community.

“We had concerns if the gas was going to be off a long period of time. We had residents highlighted who we thought were elderly and particularly vulnerable.”

Coun Bridgett paid tribute to the community spirit displayed by people in Rothbury.

“I would not expect anything less. We managed through the floods, we have managed through this. Everybody just gets on with it.”