VILLIERS: NATIONAL GRID MUST PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS TO GET PEOPLE CONNECTED FOR CHRISTMAS

Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, this week visited the incident centre at St Mary's Primary School in Little Grove, in East Barnet, which has been set up to deal with a crisis which left over a thousand residents without gas for almost a week. Around 500 are still awaiting reconnection.

The problems first occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning, when a burst water main flooded the gas supply.

Following her visit, Theresa said, "This is a nightmare for the families involved. Having gas supplies fail is bad enough at any time, but for this to happen to so many of my constituents during these bitter weather conditions and at Christmas, makes this crisis a thousand times worse."

"I was alerted at an early stage what was happening when one of the consituents affected called me at home on Sunday. Ever since, I and my staff team have been in constant touch with National Grid and Veolia Water, who are responsible for fixing this problem. I have been urging them to reconnect my constituents as soon as possible. Naturally I have been pressing them to pull out all the stops to get everyone reconnected before Christmas."

"I have also emphasised how important it is for them to keep the residents affected by this disaster as well informed and well looked after. I welcome the work the Council has been doing to keep people up to speed on what has been happening and to provide help for the vulnerable."

The most recent update from National Grid indicates that over a thousand people have been reconnected so far. Unfortunately, there is still no guarantee that all of the remaining 500 will have services resume in time for Christmas Day.

Electric heaters and cooking hobs have been distributed from St Mary's School but the pressure on the network meant that the misery faced by residents (for example in Crescent Road) was intensified by an electricity power cut.

Anyone affected by this crisis can get further information from National Grid on 0845 605 6677 or www.nationalgrid.com.