A recently installed gas meter in an Ayr estate rocked by an explosion has been spotted ‘bubbling’ due to a loose screw.
Shocking footage emerged online this week, which shows leaks from the new meter which was installed nine months ago in Kincaidston as part of major replacement works in the wake of a devastating house explosion in the estate's Gorse Park.
A video taken by Rikki Bell, 34, shows gas leaking out the meter at his mum’s home on Sorrel Drive.
Rikki, a qualified plumber and heating engineer was over to pick his daughter up when his worried parents, Tracy, 59, and George Bell, 67, thought they could smell gas coming from near the front door and porch.
Rikki told Ayrshire Live: “I just went round to pick up by two-year-old girl.
“My mum and dad thought they could smell gas coming from somewhere.
“I’m a plumber and heating engineer so I tested the fittings with leak detector fluid and that’s when it showed the nut at the meter hadn’t been tightened. It was basically just hand tight.
“It took about four full turns on it with the spanner before it stopped leaking.”
Mum Tracy contacted SGN but says she was disappointed by their response claiming an online customer service agent first told her to contact the meter supplier and an engineer ‘playing down’ the leak.
Tracy said: “To be told it’s just a loose screw isn’t good enough. The meter was installed on December 5 last year and it already has problems.
“It doesn’t fill you with confidence – I don’t understand how it could have happened, and it's gas, it's dangerous and it's not a water tap.
“Things like this should be checked and checked again. They have done the whole estate and there’s been reported problems ever since.”
Tracy whose home backs onto Gorse Park where a family of four were left seriously injured due to a major gas explosion says any sign of a gas leak sparks panic.
She said: “With everything that has happened you feel you are a wee bit over paranoid with these things. The explosion was just horrible, we were so close to it.”
The latest incident is the second meter leak since the works to replace the entire network of gas mains in the estate, which stared last December.
Ayrshire Live told in March how a dad on Thistle Walk had to call out SGN just days after his meter was installed.
And another resident was told she had a ‘dangerous fitting’ installed at her home, also on Thistle Walk.
Ayr MSP Siobhian Brown says the online video was “worrying to watch” and called for a thorough investigation.
Ms Brown said: “The community of Kincaidston has been through so much. I will therefore be seeking assurances from SGN that the relevant safety checks will be carried out.”
A spokesperson for SGN said: “Upon completion of our works in the area last December, thorough safety checks were carried out at each property and we can confirm there was no leakage at this time.
“We’re unable to speculate on what has happened since we left site following our network upgrade.
“Due to the escape being fixed when our engineer arrived yesterday (Thursday), we can’t provide any more detail.”
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