The North of England’s gas distributer, Northern Gas Networks (NGN), opened the doors of its Carlisle depot to stakeholders and the local community for the first ever time on Friday (6 May).

The day was a chance for members of public to find out more about what the gas distributor for the North of England does, how it does it and future plans for the Cumbria region.

Left to right. Paul Walker and Andrew Wright demonstrate dealing with a gas escape

NGN employs around 100 colleagues in Cumbria, an area which spans from the Irish Sea on the western boundary to Brampton in the east, extending to the Scottish Borders in the north and Ravenglass in the south. It covers the towns of Keswick, Whitehaven, Carlisle, Workington and Penrith.

People were taken on a tour of the depot and given the opportunity to find out more about NGN’s innovative approach to repairing and replacing gas pipes as well as the work that the company is doing with local schools and to support the more vulnerable members of the community.

Visitors could see first-hand NGN’s life-saving gas detection technology that can detect harmful levels of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. They also got to see its new Core and Vac technology in practice, which reduces the amount of time taken to find a gas leak and make a repair from days to hours.
Matty McBride, Customer Operations Area Manager for the Cumbria area said: “We were delighted to see so many people turn up to our first ever depot day. We had some really great feedback from everyone who came down, and I think we managed to change a few perceptions about what we do and how much work behind the scenes goes into preparing each of our projects.

“Northern Gas Networks provides an essential service to the local community each and every day, so it was a great opportunity to share information about the work we do and also get feedback from our customers and stakeholders to help us continuously improve the service we provide.”

Matty McBride, customer operations manager at the Carlisle depot.

NGN delivers gas to around 109,899 homes and businesses in Cumbria, covering an area of 3,200km2 and housing two depots stationed at Carlisle and Workington.