Community spirit of Saxilby residents has been praised after they were left without a gas supply over the Bank Holiday weekend

The community spirit of Saxilby residents after nearly 2,000 homes were left without a gas supply over the bank holiday weekend.

Customers of Cadent Gas Limited were left without gas following a network fault on the evening of Saturday, May 5.

This meant that 1,800 homes were without gas over the bank holiday weekend.

And gas network Cadent has paid tribute to the big-hearted residents of Saxilby, near Lincoln, after engineers worked for four days to restore gas supplies.

Head of Emergency Response and Repair for the East region, Chris Rison, said: “We would just like to thank Saxilby residents for their kindness and patience while we restored gas supplies.

“Their response was fantastic.

“One little visitor brought us chocolates, people offered to fundraise for our chosen charity, Alzheimer’s Society, and two newly-weds even brought in their cake to share with our engineers.

“Our guys were working from early in the morning until late at night and the kindness of local residents really lifted their spirits.”

The company set up a command centre in Saxilby Village Hall and at any one time there were around 50 engineers and support staff assisting efforts to restore gas.

Cadent left the village on Tuesday, May 8, after reconnecting every home and business to which staff were able to gain access.

Coun Roger Patterson said: “To hear that the community in Saxilby offered chocolates and to fundraise for the gas companies chosen charity shows the real community spirit of West Lindsey and Lincolnshire as a whole, in times of need, and makes me proud and honoured to live in such a great District and County.”

Gainsborough’s MP, Sir Edward Leigh, said: “Local councillor Jackie Brockway has kept me informed of progress to restore the supply.

“But what really impressed me was her reports of the community coming together to work with Cadent Gas to get things sorted.

“Initial fears that the outage could last until the weekend came to nought as residents did what they could to support Cadent Gas, who worked incredibly hard to get supplies back on.”