A DISABLED man from Carrington is furious with gas pipeline contractors, Transco after they dug up the pavement outside his home without telling him.

And it all took place while he was out of the house, causing a problem when he arrived home to find his access blocked.

For he uses a wheelchair and the only way that he could get into his home was to be lifted over a trench into his driveway.

Thomas Mutch says that he has lived on Manchester Road for almost 40 years and has never encountered anything like it.

He told SUM: "The local council has only recently finished resurfacing work in the area and had made a good job of it, especially lowering kerbs which has been of great benefit.

"Yet more work took place only last week when the new surface was dug up so that gas workers could fit pipes."

Thomas adds that since the road was resurfaced he has already had North West water board workers out to attend a burst outside his home and now he has had the problem with the gas workers.

He went on: "I went out for lunch on Thursday and noticed that the Transco workers were preparing to carry out some work putting new gas pipes in place.

"I asked if there would be any disruption and they said not - but I returned over an hour later to find a ten foot deep trench blocking my way into the house.

"I had to be lifted over the trench by one of the workers - but I was not only annoyed with that but the fact that we weren't informed and would be ill-prepared if there was a gas explosion."

A spokesman for Transco told SUM: "The reason that Mr Mutch did not receive a letter was because we were responding to an emergency call to repair a gas main damaged by contractors.

"We consider safety as an absolute priority and are sure that Mr Mutch understands that we wanted to fix the damaged pipe so as to avoid any potential problems and we urge anyone who thinks that there is a leak to contact our free emergency line on 0800 111999 as soon as they smell any gas."

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