'Brilliant response'

Within a couple of hours of the incident which caused the problem, they had started to organise a military-style operation, setting-up an information centre at St James’ Church Hall with people there to answer any question and handing out fan heaters. Later in the day they were backed-up with hot plates for anyone who required them.

On Saturday morning the town was awash with white vans and engineers who had been drafted in from as far afield as Newcastle, Wales, Devon and Cornwall and Bolton, and in the main car park there were food stations in place for anyone to use on showing a food voucher given out in the church hall.

All through the weekend we were kept up to date with progress through the local social media network.

The engineers who called to firstly check that your gas was off, then to reconnect you, were all friendly, cheerful and helpful, even though they were drafted in on a cold bank holiday weekend. We even had a visit from the Red Cross on Sunday checking if we were OK and asking if we needed any heaters, blankets etc.

By Monday evening I think most of the town was reconnected.

What a magnificent, well-run, organised effort it was – a credit to Northern Gas and its partners.

Also a well done and big thanks should go to the people of Silsden who rallied round and showed a great community spirit. People were queuing up on Saturday morning at the hall to go around the town giving out information letters to every household, people volunteered to serve hot drinks in the town hall, local businesses offered free drinks etc and everyone seemed to be calling on their neighbours and the elderly making sure they were OK. A great spirit was formed.

So thank you again for everyone’s efforts which helped what could have been a traumatic time go well with great planning and organisation.

GRAHAM JACKSON Hawber Cote Drive Silsden