St Albans: loss of gas to properties in Park Street area

5:30pm update

Joint statement from Cadent and Affinity Water

We are dealing with an incident that has impacted gas supplies in the Park Street area of St Albans.

What we know at this stage is that there was a burst water main in the area which has resulted in water entering into the local gas network, blocking the flow of gas into properties. The exact circumstances are currently being investigated, but the priority right now is focussed on getting gas restored for our customers.

Teams from Cadent and Affinity Water are in the area today to assist customers impacted, with particular emphasis on people who may be in vulnerable circumstances, such as those on the Priority Services Register (PSR). Arrangements are being made to supply PSR customers with alternative sources of cooking (and heating, where needed).

We are also grateful to a number of local leisure clubs, who have made their facilities available for people to get a hot shower. We also have customer support teams from Cadent and Affinity Water at Greenwood Park Community Centre, in Tippendell Lane.

Further details of our support locations, more information about the incident, and further updates is available at www.cadentgas.com/stalbans. You can also find information about your water supply here www.affinitywater.co.uk/alerts?id=9645

We know it’s not nice at all to be without gas. Cadent has brought in lots of engineers to work on resolving this issue as quickly and as safely as it can. Affinity Water also has colleagues supporting Cadent in assisting customers in any way we can. The response to this from the local community has been amazing and much appreciated by our teams.

ENDS

11am

Our teams are dealing with an incident in the Park Street area of St Albans. We believe water has entered our gas network and is blocking the flow of gas into local properties.

For up to date information, please go to the dedicated page: www.cadentgas.com/stalbans

When this happens, we must follow a careful process to first turn off supply, at every property. Our teams will get all the water out and then return to every property to turn supply back on.

We have a large presence on-site this evening and it will be even bigger tomorrow (Friday 30/06/23) as we continue the process to go door-to-door to follow this systematic process.

We do need access to every property. We are asking people to remain at home tomorrow (Friday) if you can. If you can’t stay in, perhaps leave a key with a neighbour?

We want to be clear that a water-related incident like this takes time to resolve. It is not a quick fix. Safety is always our number one priority. We will make sure we have lots of resources on site for as long as this takes - engineers to sort out the gas supply issue and also support teams to help you in any way we can. You will see us set up a command centre and customer liaison points from early tomorrow. We will share the location of those when we have them.

We will provide updates as soon as we have more information to share.

Ends