The North of England’s gas distributer, Northern Gas Networks’ (NGN), opened the doors of its Burradon depot to stakeholders and the local community for the first ever time today (13 April).

The day was a chance for members of public to find out more about what NGN does, how it does it and future plans for the North Tyne area.

NGN employs around 150 colleagues in North Tyne, an area which spans from the Scottish borders to north of the River Tyne.

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.

Members of the public could see first-hand NGNs 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.

Nigel Chambers, Customer Operations Area Manager for the North Tyne area said, “We were delighted to see so many people turn up to our first ever depot day. Northern Gas Networks provides an essential service to the local community each and every day, so it was a great opportunity to share more information about the work we do and also get some direct feedback from our customers and stakeholders to help us continuously improve the service we provide.”

NGN delivers gas to around 302,405 homes and businesses in North Tyne, covering an area of 3,600km2.  The area includes the gas distributor’s depot in Burradon, a gas offtake site in Saltwick, where gas is transported into the distribution network from the national grid, and two pressure reduction stations in Hazelrigg and Blaydon.