East Barnet residents criticize National Grid sluggish emergency response

East Barnet homes affected by the gas-cut crisis will receive reimbursement, said National Grid. Gas consumers will get £30 for every day they are without supply, while businesses that have lost earnings due to lack of gas will be refunded after being assessed.

The company’s engineers are currently involved in getting all houses reconnected to gas supplies this Christmas. However, it is still uncertain whether this can be accomplished. Many East Barnet residents are worried also about the cost of heating their homes with the electric fan heaters earlier provided by National Grid.

Many affected people have condemned the crisis, although some have taken up a Dunkirk spirit. Neighbours have been helping one another, with many taking care of the older residents.

Helen Lyon, mother of two, criticized those people handling the crisis and called the National Grid’s response a failure. She informed that no one from their staff at St Mary’s School’s incident room was able to give consistent updates. Lyon moreover condemned the organization for having no customer relation strategy to deal with the public.

Dan Alexander, a charity worker, was meanwhile very upset as his premature baby has been left with no cooking facility and a heater only. He said that British Gas, Transco and the local council each provide different crisis assessments from one another. He further added that the local council’s emergency response has been absolutely poor.

In a statement, National Grid has apologized to affected East Barnet residents and assured to reconnect homes as soon as possible. The gas supplier also advised people not to turn on their gas supply without being checked first by engineers.