Customer CentreIf you have any questions regarding the incident please contact us on:
Phone: 0800 389 8000
Email: [email protected]
Our incident unit departed Tattenhall this afternoon.
We now only have a small number of homes where we haven’t restored supply. That’s only because we haven’t had an answer when we knocked on the door. Residents of these homes should ring 0800 111 999 and ask for a purge and relight. An engineer will come to restore your supply and safety check everything.
We hand-delivered letters today to every property affected by this incident. A copy of that letter is here. This explains more about compensation and provides further information you may find helpful.
So, this is the last update we’ll post here. Thanks again for your support and kindness since this incident began on Sunday.
We only have a small number of homes to restore gas supply to now in Tattenhall – and the only reason that’s the case is because we haven’t had an answer when we’ve knocked on the door. We will keep trying.
We’re keeping a presence on site until around 8pm this evening and then will be back tomorrow for what we expect will be our final day taking up precious space at your lovely Barbour Institute (and, by the way, we can’t thank the team there enough for allowing us to use the car park for our incident command unit).
If you’re one of the few properties not on gas right now: We have posted a card through your letter box, which explains what to do now to arrange for an engineer to visit. Until tomorrow, you can still find us at the Barbour Institute – visit us here and we’ll send an engineer round straight away. After that, ring the number of the card we’ve posted (0800 111 999) and ask for a purge and relight.
To everyone in Tattenhall: please keep a look out for a letter being hand-delivered tomorrow. There’s another little extra something in there from us to you, to say thanks for being so kind, generous and understanding while we worked over the last five days to restore gas to this beautiful village you have the fortune to call home.
We’ve accessed 90 per cent of Tattenhall properties affected by this incident, with gas switched back on and appliances checked for safety in these. Great news!
We have made at least one visit to every property. Please don’t worry if you’ve not had your supply restored yet – we aren’t leaving and will have a presence on site throughout today.
So, if we haven’t caught you in, what next?
What you need to do now is visit our team at the Barbour Institute, and we’ll send an engineer round to get your supply back on and check everything is working safely.
If you can’t visit us, try 0781 251 6279 (it’s a busy line, so please bear with us). You can also contact our general enquiries line on 0800 389 8000, who will pass on a message to us.
Our engineers will also visit your home anyway, to take a chance on you being in.
If, after several visits, we have still not been able to gain access, we’ll leave a note which will explain what to do next.
A huge thanks to the fabulous teams at Alison’s Country Kitchen, Fish & Chips @ No:3, The Letters Inn and Tattenhall Spice, who worked wonders in helping us make sure you’ve had hot meals these last few days.
Our offer of free meals ended last night, with gas back on to the whole village. Don’t forget to continue supporting these superb local businesses though!
Can we also remind you that if you smell gas – now or in the future – act immediately and call 0800 111 999. That’s the national gas emergency number and it’s available 24/7. You’ll be guided what to do and, if needed, we can arrange for an engineer to check it out.
A quick message from Nicholas Jerman, Cadent's incident controller.
Fantastic news around 90% of homes and businesses are now back on gas.
We have visited every property in Tattenhall at least once today. So if you weren’t in this evening and we missed you or you know that your neighbour has been away, don’t worry, we will be back tomorrow.
We do need access to your property to safely switch your gas back on. We need to check your gas appliances and your gas pipes, so leave a key with your neighbour or let us know when you will be home.
Our mobile command unit will be at the Barbour Institute car park again tomorrow and you can always call us on 0781 251 6279 (8am-10pm) to let us know when you are home.
We will visit each property at least three times and if we still miss you, we’ll leave details for when you return and you can call us and we’ll send out an engineer to switch your gas back on.
Our engineers from across the North West have worked very hard to ensure you have your gas as quickly as possible. We would like to thank you all for your patience, co-operation and kind words. This means a lot to our teams. Thank you.
Once everyone is back on gas and we have closed the incident, we will send you a letter regarding the compensation you are entitled to. A copy of the letter will be on this website page and for further information please look at the FAQ tab.
The latest news from the incident controller is that we have 70% of homes back on gas already today. With our engineers still out in the village this evening, we hope, if people are in, that we'll restore gas to 90-95% of the village by close of play tonight.
We’re going street-by-street, house-by-house, to switch supplies back on and carry out all the necessary safety checks of your boilers and appliances. This does take time – we just need you to bear with us for a little longer.
We do need access to your home to restore your supply – so, please stay in if you can, but don’t worry if you can’t. We will make at least three visits and, if you are still not in, we’ll leave details for how to make contact with us.
We'll be still in the village tomorrow too, so don't worry, we'll get those last few homes back on gas. Progress has been good today and now people are back from work, we expect good progress this evening too.
Our engineers are now actively restoring gas supplies in BOTH zones (1&2) in Tattenhall.
We’re going street-by-street, house-by-house, to switch supplies back on and carry out all the necessary safety checks of your boilers and appliances.
This will take time – we just need you to bear with us for a little longer. We remain hopeful of getting most of you back on gas today.
We do need access to your home to restore your supply – so, please stay in if you can, but don’t worry if you can’t. We will make at least three visits and, if you are still not in, we’ll leave details for how to make contact with us.
If you still don’t have gas come tea time, and you want a hot meal, the offer stays open for you to get a free meal (to the value of £10 per person) from:
You will be asked to leave details of your name and address.
Contacting us
Our customer is at Barbour Institute, High Street, Tattenhall, CH3 9PX. If you can’t pop in to see us here, you can contact the team on 0781 251 6279.
If you smell gas, act fast and call the national gas emergency service on 0800 111 999* immediately. It’s important you do this quickly, and do not assume it’s related to the ongoing incident.
*All calls are recorded and may be monitored
We are nearly there. We managed to get a lot of homes back on gas last night and we are making every effort to get all homes back on gas today.
Our engineers will be across Tattenhall today starting at 8am in Zone 1 and continuing into Zone 2.
A little reminder that we are continuing to provide free hot meals today to residents who are not back on gas just yet. These restaurants are providing hot meals again today:
We continue to deliver ready meals, provided by Morrisons, to those on the priority services register. Please let us know if you need any assistance.
Thank you for your continued patience.
Great news, we've managed to switch on over 30% of the homes this evening, starting in Zone 1. Thank you to those who were in.
We'll start again at 8am tomorrow morning, completing Zone 1 and starting on Zone 2 too. With over 30 engineers drafted in from across the North West, we will be working across the village to get everyone back on gas by the end of the day.
Please do not try to turn your gas supply on yourself.
We may not have restore gas to the pipes in your street just yet. To keep you safe, our engineers have to do a number of safety checks to all of your gas appliances before your gas can be turned on. It is not as easy as flicking a switch.
If you have to go out to work tomorrow, don't worry, we understand. We will visit each property at least three times. We won't leave Tattenhall until everyone is back on gas. So, if we miss you throughout the day, we'll be back to visit you in the evening.
We've fixed our mobile phone, so if you have any questions, please do call us on 0781 251 6279 (8am-10pm) or visit us at the Barbour Institute, High Street, Tattenhall, Chester CH3 9PX.
Some good news! We have now started to restore gas in Tattenhall village.
This means we have gas back in some of the mains pipes, but not everywhere yet.
Please have a look at the ‘affected areas’ tab of this page. You’ll see it shows two zones.
If your street is in Zone 1, gas is back in the mains pipes here.
We are going street-by-street to restore supply and check appliances are working. This will take some time, so please bear with us.
We hope to restore gas toZone 2 later today, but it could run into tomorrow for this zone (sorry).
We apologise for this inconvenience. Your patience and understanding has been amazing and we are very grateful.
Do you need to stay in?
We do need access to your home to safely restore your supply. Please, do not try to do this yourself – it is not safe to. Our engineer will also check your boiler and appliances, to make sure everything is working correctly. If you could stay in, that will help massively. But if that’s not practical, don’t worry we will make several visits until we catch you in. We will continue working late into this evening, only stopping when it gets too dark to knock on doors.
If you need a hot meal
We have made arrangements for residents of Tattenhall to get a free hot meal (if you’re still off gas, this offer applies tomorrow too) from the following places in Tattenhall village:
Contacting us
Our customer team will be at our information point at Barbour Institute, High Street, Tattenhall, CH3 9PX until late this evening. You can also contact the team on 0781 251 6279.
We’re in contact with customers on the Priority Services Register, who we know need extra support at this time. Let us know if you need support or have any questions – we will do our best to help if we can.
A message from Nick Jerman, who has been leading our response to this incident...
We are very close now to completing our task to switch off gas supply at every property in Tattenhall. It’s been a huge exercise and you’ve been fantastic in helping us get to this important, safety-critical stage – thank you so much.
The next phase involves our engineers clearing and checking our network outside (these pipes are mostly underground; you can’t see them). This is all in readiness for getting gas back into the network and restoring your supply.
We must stress the importance of ringing the national gas emergency service on 0800 111 999, day or night, if you smell gas at any time. So you know, there will be periods today, from around 1pm, when you may smell gas outside in Tattenhall, which is okay (if it’s outside). This is because clearing our pipes involves sending gas into the atmosphere, where it will dissipate safely.
When will your supply be restored? Do you need to be in?
We know you’re desperate for news on when your gas supply will be restored. We remain hopeful that within the next 24 hours we can start restoring supplies. Keep following our updates. We have a list of priority customers who we’ll focus on first and then we’ll go street-to-street to restore supplies.
We will need to access your home to restore supply and check your appliances are working okay. If you can be in this evening, and tomorrow, it will really help speed up the process. If that’s just not practical, don’t worry – we’ll keep trying (we are not leaving the village until we’ve got everyone back on gas).
Please budget for being another night off gas. We’re sorry about that and our team is working to get this resolved as fast as possible, safely.
If you need a hot meal
We have made arrangements for residents of Tattenhall to get a free hot meal from the following places in Tattenhall village (all on High Street):
Contacting us
Our customer team is on site early and well into the evening at Barbour Institute, High Street, Tattenhall, CH3 9PX. We know some of you have had trouble contacting us on the number we shared in a letter yesterday – if you can’t get through on that, try 0800 389 8000 or visit the team at Barbour Institute.
We’re in contact with customers on the Priority Services Register, who we know need extra support at this time. Let us know if you need support or have any questions – we will do our best to help if we can.
Good news, last night we successfully switched the gas off to over 90% of homes and this morning there is a real push to get the remaining properties off gas ASAP.
We need people to be in, so if you can stay at home please let us know, so we can send an engineer to switch off your gas supply. Once complete, we can start getting gas back into our network.
Another step forward to getting your gas supply back on.
We appreciate the inconvenience this is causing you, so we have arranged for a number of restaurants to provide free hot food to all the residents of Tattenhall on Tuesday. The restaurants, all on the High Street include:
Those on the priority services register (PSR) can have ready meals delivered to them. We will be visiting those on the PSR each day but if there is someone you know who may need assistance please let us know. Call our customer team on 07812 516279 (8am - 10pm) or pop in to the Barbour Institute.
Please see the attached letter sent to customers today. Tattenhall-Letter-13-09-2021.pdf
We are nearly there, with just 25% of properties to visit this evening. If we've visited you today and you weren't in, don't worry we will return again this evening or visit us at the Barbour Institute to let us you are in now and we'll send an engineer to you. We are doing our very best to switch all gas supplies off this evening.
We need to ensure everyone's gas supply is switched off before we can start to get gas back into the network and you back on gas. This is a safety-critical step and we know it does take some time. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
We are trying to look after you as much as possible. Should you and your family require a hot meal tonight, please come to the Barbour Institute on the High Street and we have some ready meals available, thanks to Morrisons. It's first come first serve. Please be conscious we have a limited supply but we hope to feed all those who need a hot meal this evening.
Those on the priority services register and those who need of a little extra assistance, we are looking after them and visiting each day just to make sure they have everything they need. If you are concerned about a family member, friend or neighbour please let us know.
We will continue to visit homes to switch them off into this evening, stopping only when we think it’s dark and you’d probably not welcome a knock at the door at such a late hour.
We’re making very good progress today in Tattenhall, as we continue our operation to get gas safely back on to the village.
We first need to switch off supply at every property. This is a safety-critical step. We have to be sure everything is ‘off’, which takes time.
We have more than 40 engineers going house-to-house now and by mid-afternoon today we had reached nearly half of the properties in the village.
Thank you so much for your co-operation and understanding.
We will continue into this evening, stopping only when we think it’s dark and you’d probably not welcome a knock at the door at such a late hour.
Please don’t attempt to isolate your own supply; it’s not safe and our engineers must do this.
After turning off all supplies, our teams will then confirm our ‘governor’ (the equipment which regulates gas pressures) is working safely, and then restart the process to visit every home again – to switch your supply back on and make sure your boiler and appliances are working properly.
Contacting us: We have a customer team at an information point at Barbour Institute, High Street, Tattenhall, CH3 9PX. Let us know if you need support or have any questions – we will do our best to help if we can. We’re in contact with customers on the Priority Services Register and will also be distributing a letter with more information to the village later today.
Please take a look at our previous updates too (click the + buttons to expand the updates)
If you're in Tattenhall
Early this morning, our teams resumed the major task to visit each property in Tattenhall, as we continue the operation to restore gas supply to the village.
For safety reasons, we first need to be sure gas is switched off at every property - please don’t try to do that yourself. We have 40 engineers in the village right now, going house-to-house.
We need access to your gas meter to do this. If your meter is outside (for example, in a box on the wall), we don’t need you to be in. If it’s inside your property, we will need to get access inside.
We appreciate this is a big ask, but if you could remain in that would help hugely. If you need to go out, could you arrange for a neighbour, friend or family to let us in? The quicker we can turn off all supplies, the quicker we can confirm all is okay and then restore the village’s supply safely.
This is not an easy task, nor a quick one, but if we can continue to receive the superb support and co-operation you’ve given us up to now, we are hopeful of completing this phase of the task today.
If all goes to plan, we can then fix the governor, with a view to revisiting every property again from Wednesday, to restore your supply and check your boiler and appliances are working safely.
If you're in Eccleston, Alford, Saighton or Gatesheath
If you live in these villages, the update is that we think it’s very unlikely your supply will be affected. We have some last checks to complete to confirm this, but everything is looking okay.
Contacting us
We have a customer team manning an information point at Barbour Institute, High Street, Tattenhall, CH3 9PX. Please visit us here if you need support or need to tell us anything – we will do our best to help if we can. We have identified and are in contact with customers on the Priority Services Register. Today, we’ll also be hand-delivering letters to each property.
Finally, thank you
We know this isn’t nice and apologise for the inconvenience. Your understanding is appreciated and please be assured that we’re doing everything we can to restore your supply safely, as quickly as we can.
Tattenhall
Gas emergency engineers have successfully turned off the gas to around a fifth of properties in Tattenhall this evening. Work will continue to safely turn gas supplies off tomorrow from 8am.
An engineer will remain on site throughout the night. Please call us on 0800 111 999 this evening, if you have any problems, rather than visiting us on site during the night.
Work will continue tomorrow, to switch off the gas supply to each property in Tattenhall. All properties need to be switched off, before we can complete the repair to the governor and restore gas back into the network.
If all goes to plan, we hope to start the repairs on the governor, complete tests and restoring gas into the gas network on Tuesday. On Wednesday, if not before, we'll start to revisit every property in Tattenhall to complete the safety checks to all of the gas appliances in each home and business.
We must reiterate, as long as everything goes according to this plan, we hope to have everyone, who is at home, back on gas by Wednesday/Thursday.
Eccleston, Alford, Saighton and Gatesheath
We hope to complete all of the safety checks to properties in Eccleston, Alford, Saighton and Gatesheath this evening. Our engineers will knock on people's doors until around 10-11pm this evening. After this time we don't expect residents will open their door, so will start again in the morning, if necessary.
It is hoped that we will not have to switch the gas supplies off to these villages.
Gas emergency engineers are turning off the gas supply to Tattenhall this evening, for safety reasons, due to a problem with one of the governors, that regulates gas pressures in the area.
Engineers will also be carrying out safety checks to all properties in Eccleston, Alford, Saighton and Gatesheath. It is hoped that we will not have to switch the gas supplies off to these villages.
*Will I get compensation for being without gas?
Yes. Cadent has a statutory obligation to pay compensation to anyone who is without gas for more than 24hrs after the first complete 24hr period.
Everyone who lost gas will receive a letter regarding compensation for loss of gas. Householders are entitled to £65 for every 24 hours they were off gas while businesses will receive £105 per 24 hours off gas. This will be paid directly to them via their gas suppliers.
*Do I need to claim for compensation?
No. Compensation for the loss of your gas supply will be paid automatically to your gas supplier whose name will be at the top of your gas bill.
*When will I get my compensation?
Cadent must pay the compensation payments to the gas suppliers within 10 working days after the closure of the incident.
*How will my gas supplier pass on this compensation payment?
This will depend upon your gas supplier. Some may take it off your gas bill; others may send you a cheque. You will need to contact them for this information.
*How much will I receive?
This will depend upon how long you were without gas. Your entitlement is above.We will be visiting all residents in vulnerable situations to switch their gas off. We are also providing assistance to those in the most vulnerable situations.
These include people who are elderly, chronically sick or recovering from a hospital stay, have a terminal illness, have a disability or you have children aged 0 -5 or you are registered on the Priority Services Register .
If you know of someone in a vulnerable situation and you are concerned please contact 0800 389 8000.
The Priority Services Register (PSR) is a free service offered throughout the energy industry available to domestic customers across England, Wales and Scotland.
It helps energy companies like Cadent look after customers who have extra communication, access or safety needs. It’s free and easy to join and gives extra support to those who need it.
You can register yourself, or someone you think would benefit from being on the PSR.
Find out more here
https://cadentgas.com/help-and-advice/priority-services-register
What are the key facts on carbon monoxide poisoning?
Three tips which could save your life:
Carbon monoxide (CO) is a poisonous gas that is produced when fossil fuels - coal, wood, oil and gas, are burnt without adequate air ventilation.
Carbon monoxide is:
The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include:
If you experience any of the above symptoms you should seek medical advice straight away.
Check list to ensure you don’t suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning. Ensure:
If appliances have not been serviced recently or have been deemed at risk, please call 0800 408 5500 to find a Gas Safe registered engineer in your area.
If you are tenant in accommodation; tell your Landlord, who is responsible for ensuring appliances are safe to use and instructing a Gas Safe registered engineer to repair or maintain the gas appliances.
Further information on carbon monoxide can be found at the following:
https://cadentgas.com/suspect-carbon-monoxide
www.nhs.uk/conditions/carbon-monoxide-poisoning/Pages/Introduction.aspx
