A GAS company is giving 1,400 customers £30 each as a 'gesture of goodwill,' following the loss of their gas supplies before Christmas.

The payment is being made by Northern Gas Networks (NGN) to customers in Barlby and Osgodby, near Selby, as it revealed the cause of the outage before Christmas.

It said damage to a nearby gas pipe had caused an excess flow of gas, and then a governor supplying gas to properties had shut down as a safety response.

Business Operations Lead Richard White said the company had carried out investigations into the loss of supply to around 1,400 properties in the Osgodby and Barlby areas of Selby on December 18.

“Engineers worked around the clock and supplies were restored to the network within 24 hours," he said.

“We can now confirm that the outage was a result of third-party damage to a nearby gas pipe which caused excess flows of gas in the network and forced the gas governor that supplies gas to properties in the area to shut down, a standard safety response.

“We are pleased that on this occasion we were able to safely restore the gas supply to the network within 24 hours.

"Although our regulator, Ofgem, doesn’t require us to pay compensation in this instance, we believe our customers should never be without gas so as gesture of goodwill we will be making a payment of £30 to every household affected and are writing to customers that were directly impacted to let them know.

“At Northern Gas Networks we are constantly investing in our network to ensure that our customers can continue to receive a safe and reliable gas supply, and heat their homes, cook their dinner and enjoy hot water for years to come.

"NGN will be investing £100,000 to install an additional gas governor in the area, to further improve the resilience of the network for our customers in Osgodby and Barlby for decades to come.”

If you smell gas or suspect carbon monoxide, call the National Gas Emergency Service immediately on 0800 111 999.