Darlington pupils get the Playsafe message

Gas workers went back to school to give Darlington youngsters a lesson in road works safety.

More than 350 pupils at Abbey Junior School, in Abbey Road, got to grips with pipes, barriers and road signs after a visit by gas firm United Utilities.

Engineers are replacing more than two kilometres of old metal gas main near the school with modern plastic pipe to make sure local gas supplies are safe and reliable for decades to come.

The £170,000 project, which started in March, is part of a £60m programme of gas mains investment by the region’s gas distribution firm Northern Gas Networks. The work is managed by United Utilities.

Northern Gas Networks’ communications director John O’Grady said the talk at Abbey Juniors was part of the company’s Play Safe Stay Safe campaign to teach children about the dangers of playing near road works.

“We own 36,000km of gas mains in the North East and Yorkshire and spend millions every year renewing them. That means hundreds of essential road works, many, like this one in Darlington, during school holidays,” he said.

“We want to make sure children understand that road works are just like building sites and need to be treated with respect. Playing near them or tinkering with equipment like barriers, pipes and signs can put them and other people at risk and we want to make sure no-one gets hurt.”

The gas mains replacement project in Darlington affects a number of residential streets in the Coniscliffe Road and Carmel Road North area.