Installation of New Gas Main

You will have seen the work already in progress starting at the old Melrose Road and will continuing through the village centre until it joins up with a gas pipe the other side of A68 outside the Garden Centre. The work started on 7th April and is planned to take 28 weeks (some 6 months)to complete and will obviously cause a lot of disruption to the village. One particular pressure point will be the closure of Sprouston Road for some two weeks with all School and local traffic being diverted along Glenburn Ave. on to the Bowden Road.

This work has been activily opposed by the village Community Council and delayed by two years since it believes that the new pipe should have been routed down the by-pass. Below explains more detail.

Background

Around two years ago the village was given a few weeks notice that the gas pipe work was about to start and go right through the village. The village strongly objected to this basically for three reasons.

1/ the short notice given

2/ the village would get no benefit from it since we were told it was only to improve gas supply to Jedburgh

3/ the village felt that the pipe should go down the By-pass road not through the village.

Our objections were supported by the local MP and the matter was taken up to Transport Ministerial level. The out come of all this was to delay the work until a full investigation had taken place into the alternative route taking the pipe down the By-pass.

Two years then passed before we heard from the Gas company and a few weeks ago we were told that the pipe would be coming through the centre of the village. When questioned about the outcome of the investigation into the By-pass route we were advised that it had started but was not completed since it initially showed costs would be prohibitive, a figure of over £70k was mentioned. A further complication was that during the two year period the Gas company has changed ownership from being Transco to now Scotland Gas Networks.

However before the current work started we were told at a briefing meeting that the By-pass route was not adopted because of technical reason not because of cost ? This is difficult to accept since there are many high pressure gas pipes going across many bridges throughout the UK. We believe that the Gas company is saving money by going through the village at the inconvenience of the village but without funds to engage consultants etc. we are unable to prove this.

Also at the recent briefing meeting the village was told that the work would be completed with the least inconvenience to the village residents and businesses. Noise would be kept to a minimum and cutting disks would be used instead of pneumatic drills etc. However when work started it is clear that a considerable level of noise is involved particularly with the use of a very large Pecker Drill and other noisy and dusty machinery.

There is a compensation process for businesses affected by the work but not for local communities. However bearing in mind that the work is planned to take over six months to complete the village Community Council has requested a donation be made to by the Gas Company for some funds to improve the village i.e. children’s play equipment or similar. In response we were told that this could be done but each case needs to be considered and that they would get back to us on the matter.
That was five weeks ago and the village has heard nothing despite making inquiries.

If you feel inconvenienced or disturbed by the work make a complaint to ScotlandGas Networks,contact details below, or simply to the local supervisor but make note of name and advise you wish your complaint to be recorded.

Telephone - 01896 751696 or

Email - customerservicesouthern@scotiagasnetworks.co.uk