A NORTH Yorkshire council has been criticised after gas fires were replaced for electric alternatives, allegedly leaving one household without heating for four weeks and another with a fire in her fuse box.

Selby District Council has been replacing gas fires of a certain age with electric fires because, a spokesman, said “electric fires are safer; there is less risk of carbon monoxide leaks and electric fires require less long-term maintenance, therefore better and safer for our tenants and more cost effective use of taxpayers’ money”.

But council house tenants’ representative Jean Allerton said there had been no consultation and that one resident had been left without heating and another with a fire in her fuse box. She said tenants had had council workers turn up on their doorsteps thinking they would be giving their gas fires an annual service only to have them immediately condemned. Mrs Allerton said: “Why have they not consulted us about it. It’s supposed to be a partnbership.”

She said one woman had been left without central heating and hot water for about four weeks, although she did have an immersion heater.”

She said the bills for the electric fires will be a lot higher than they were for the gas ones.

The council spokesman said there were a large number of gas fires being replaced for electric ones, but this was because they had been fitted about the same time so were coming to the end of their working lives at the same time.

He said: “Over recent months we have found, however, that there have been a large number of fires and back boilers that need replacing across the district. These failures are not due to lack of maintenance but with issues highlighted on the landlords’ mandatory gas safety checks, which Selby District Council takes very seriously. A number of failures have been caused by issues with the flues to these gas appliances.

He said the council had been told about the tenant who had no hot water and were currently investigating although had not found the tenant so far.

But he said: “Where possible we aim to have these systems up and running within two working days. We have systems in place to ensure people are not left without heating for any substantial period, which is why we’re looking into this as a matter of urgency.”

Regarding the fire in the fuse box he said: “We were made aware of a problem with the electrics at this property and responded as a matter of urgency. We appreciate this can be unnerving. As soon as the issue was reported to us we were able to fix the problem that very morning.”