The ongoing ‘nightmare’ in Sheffield after burst pipe flooded 3,000 homes

At 11pm on December 2, 2022, a burst Yorkshire Water main tore into a Cadent Gas pipe, causing some 200,000 litres to enter the area’s gas system in an “unprecedented” incident.

Shocked residents in Stannington watched in bafflement as water poured out of their gas hobs, metres and appliances. By the end, more than 3,000 homes were affected, with thousands of families left without power or hot water.

A year on, Mary Aston, of Holme Oak Way, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that this time – in the middle of the festive season – was just a “nightmare”.

She said: “The evening that it happened I was just sat watching the football (the World Cup) and suddenly heard a hissing sound coming from the kitchen. I know you think you can’t see gas but it was coming from my cooker and you could see it…

“The smell was shocking. Then I, stupidly, turned (the cooker) on and it flashed back, a big fireball, and it pushed me back against my fridge. Fortunately, I wasn’t hurt.”

Ms Aston added she had thought something “massive” had happened. The next morning everybody was out on the street.

“I thought ‘oh my god, it’s not just me’, and I was sort of relieved”, she remembered.

In the morning engineers from Cadent visited the neighbourhood and started emptying the meters.

“They (the meters) were totally flooded”, Ms Aston said.

She added: “The whole estate looked like a war zone – with all people dressed in gear and the streets were dug up… I was lucky my house wasn’t flooded but others had water all over the place.”

However, Ms Aston’s house was without gas until the end of December.

Despite the situation, she said, there was a good community atmosphere in Stannington – people really pulled together.

However, months went by and frustration grew. Months after the incident, hundreds of boilers were still missing…

At one point, gas companies had told residents to claim on their household insurance – something that most people were reluctant to do.

This is when Ms Aston called her neighbours, other concerned residents and local politicians to meet and talk about the next steps.

She said as a result they had had “really good publicity” – the issue was widely covered by local press and the BBC, among others – that forced Yorkshire Water to step up.

She said: “I had to replace my boiler, my cooker and my fire. I didn’t pay a penny because I refused to.”

Another big problem awaited to be resolved: water ingress as a result of the flood in the gas pipes.

Residents asked Cadent, the gas company, how long it would take to sort it, and they had said “it could take years”, Ms Aston added.

However, thanks to an agreement between the residents and Yorkshire Water, the company promised to take care of all faulty equipment in the next six years (five years now) if the problem occurred due to last year’s incident.

“I think that’s a fairly good result, Ms Aston said.

A year on, the biggest problem residents have is with the replacement meters – not smart meters – which resulted in some people still billed on estimates.

She said: “The temporary meters are not connected… the individual suppliers have no idea how much is owed.

“At the end of December (last year), I got a bill for £1500 and I’d had energy for six days.”

Others, a lot of them are elderly people, Ms Aston added, had £2,500 billed.

Ms Aston said she knew people who still had these temporary meters, more than 12 months after the incident.

“Only three days ago they (a neighbour) received a bill for £1,400 and something for months of usage”, Ms Aston said.

This happened on December 12, this year. More than 370 days after the incident… For some, the “nightmare” just won’t go away.

Looking back at the last 12 months, Ms Aston said she personally was “so relieved” that she would hate to go through this ordeal again.

“The next six months were just so difficult and stressful”, she said. “Difficult because it was so cold and stressful because of the ridiculous bills that were charged”.

In a statement, Olivia Blake, the Sheffield Hallam MP, said: “A year on from the incident, I know for many people in Stannington the difficulties, and in some cases trauma, of those weeks are still with them.

“I will never forget the strength and resilience our community showed throughout the crisis. Schools opened their doors to cold residents, local businesses provided free meals and hot drinks, people from across Sheffield went door to door in the snow, checking in on residents. It was incredible to witness, and be part of.

“But this should never have been necessary. Since the incident, I have been working to ensure no one has to go through what my constituents did. Water companies must be held accountable for old, faulty infrastructure.

“And we urgently need a single priority register, so that vulnerable groups receive the timely support they need during times of crisis.”

Cllr Shaffaq Mohammed, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in Sheffield, added: “Ever since the flood first hit, me and my local team of Lib Dem councillors were out on the ground, assessing the situation and knocking on doors to check on residents.

“It was clear that it was a major incident and our team spent much of the day convincing the council of the scale of the incident. We then moved fast to start delivering a leaflet to residents to direct them to where they could access support.”

“You can always rely on the community in Stannington to pull together, and this was no exception, with community halls and groups helping to provide warm spaces and distribute aid. It was touching to see so many people helping each other through the flood and the bitter cold.”

“Since then, me and my team have kept up the pressure on Yorkshire Water, questioning why they haven’t fixed leaks like the one that caused the flood despite months of reports. I want to see Yorkshire Water reformed into a ‘public benefit company’ that is structured to serve local people and the environment instead of shareholders and profit margins.”