WHILE residents across the borough were either out enjoying the snow or wrapped up warm inside, one South Ham resident was left shivering after more than a week without heating.

Cheryl Harvey had been without any heating or hot water in her property in Stag Hill since Monday, 12 March after she smelt gas and got in touch with her housing association Sovereign.

After her boiler had been making loud banging noises and a constant smell of gas, an engineer from Sovereign’s sub-contractors Central Heating Services (CHS) switched the boiler off on Tuesday, 13 March and said they would return on the Thursday to see what the problem was.

“I was told the earliest they could send someone out was Thursday morning between 8am and 6pm so I waited around but nobody turned up,” the 45-year-old told The Gazette.

“The smell of gas was getting really bad so I was told to contact SGN and they sent someone round within 40 minutes.

“After carrying out a few tests their engineer said the levels of gas were very dangerous and he condemned the boiler and told me the house was lucky to still be standing.”

CHS eventually said they would send someone out on Saturday, 17 March.

She added: “I had been waiting around on Saturday, so I thought I would phone them to see where the engineer was and was told no one services boilers on Saturdays.

“So, it left me and my son wearing layers of clothes huddled in one room trying to keep warm as the snow came down.”

A spokeswoman from Sovereign said: “We’ve apologised to Ms Harvey for the trouble she’s had with the boiler at her home. As soon as we were told about the problem we made sure temporary heaters were available to her and our specialist contractors arranged to come round and repair the boiler, which was completed earlier this week. Given the unprecedented cold spell we’ve worked hard to respond to urgent repairs requests which have successfully been resolved.”

SGN advises anyone who can smell gas to call the National Gas Emergency Number on 0800 111 999.