No connection

A Newport brother and sister, who paid £2,500 to have two properties connected to the gas mains last September, are still waiting for heating because Homes England and the IW Council cannot decide who should give permission for it to happen.

Alan Stay, who owns Stag Lane Motors, just outside the town, and his sister, Janet Grist, live in one property next to the garage and are renovating a second across the road.

Because of the confusion, SGN Gas is refusing to connect the properties without written confirmation from the landowners – even though similar homes next to each house have been connected over the past few years.

Janet said: “Initially, SGN sent along a surveyor and sent us a plan of the proposed new gas pipe installation. SGN then said that the company cannot access the gas main without written permission from the third-party landowner, which, we believe, is Homes England, a government department.

“Things have gone downhill since. We have permission to have the services to our property, in the deeds, either under, over, or through this land. SGN is saying they can’t put in a new installation and is refusing to install the new gas pipe. Homes England just keep fobbing us off. They don’t seem to know if they own the land or if it is the IW Council’s. We are being blocked by bureaucracy.”

Alan added: “This is just like the Post Office television drama; we’re the little people battling the big companies and no one is listening.

We shouldn’t be sorting this out; we’ve paid our money and SGN has done nothing.”

Ross Nicolson, Homes England’s head of estate management, said: “We’re in touch with both households and the council to get the properties connected as quickly as possible. The process has taken longer than we would have liked and we’re grateful to the residents for their patience and the council for working with us to resolve this matter.”

An IW Council spokesman did not elaborate on this statement.

Dan Brown, on behalf of SGN, added: “The customer has been asked to obtain consent from a third-party landowner enabling us to access our gas main situated in a grass verge. We understand the customer has tried multiple times to contact the landowner but has not yet been successful. It is the customer’s responsibility to obtain the consent and this is the only reason preventing the work proceeding.”