A North Yorkshire councillor has praised the region’s gas emergency service after violent weather caused major disruption to Skinningrove’s gas supply in September.

Gas supplies were severely disrupted when a bridge over the Skinningrove Beck carrying a gas main collapsed due to a combination of heavy rainfall and sheer volume of water. The bridge collapse caused major damage to a low pressure gas main resulting in the loss of supply to homes and businesses in the village and risk to the medium pressure gas main.

Engineers from Northern Gas Networks worked throughout the night to tackle the problem on Mill Lane despite torrential rain, howling winds and the village being put onto full flood alert.

Northern Gas Networks, Site Manager, Steve Pigott said:

“Our team are well prepared to deal with emergency repairs such as this but the weather on that night made our work much more difficult to carry out.

” We successfully created a temporary bypass for the gas supply and within 24 hours we had majority onto the network as normal.”

Engineers set up an incident information room at the Skinningrove Village Hall where residents could call in for advice or more practical help including collecting electric heaters and stoves.

Councillor Barry Hunt of Brotton Ward was delighted with the way Northern Gas Engineers helped the village during the storms.

“I’ve worked with a lot of utilities and I must say that the way that Northern Gas Networks worked and communicated with the village was excellent.

“They distributed stoves and heaters to the more vulnerable members of our community and made sure that everyone was kept informed during the gas disruption. They displayed a great team spirit and I’m also very proud of the way that the villagers took it all in their stride too.”

The engineering work is now coming to an end with the gas main reinstated permanently onto the bridge and reinforced with a steel protective section.

Anyone who smells gas should call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999.