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Gas alert - Residents evacuated as road is closed off
Seamer Road gas leak. Emeregency services at scene of the gas leak on Seamer Rd. 120627c
A LARGE area of Scarborough was brought to a standstill yesterday as one of main routes in to the town closed.
Seamer Road was blocked to motorists and pedestrians from 12.50pm into the night as emergency repairs were carried out to fix a gas leak.
The closure, between Valley Road and Queen Margarets Road junctions, caused chaos.
Residents were evacuated and motorists and bus routes were diverted throughout the afternoon.
Pupils at two schools within the cordon had to transported by minibus at home time as parents were not allowed in to the area to pick them up.
Rob Waller, acting headteacher at Hinderwell School, which was affected as well as Springhead School, said: “Mini buses were arranged to take the children from school to the edge of the cordon where they were met by their parents.
“What surprised me was there were two primary schools in the middle of the cordon, and it was down to us to make the inquiries as to what was going to happen. There were no instructions from Northern Gas or the police.”
Businesses were also badly affected with many losing out on an afternoon’s trade.
James Rodgers, the dealer principal at Marshall Honda in Seamer Road, said: “No one told us what had happened, it was seen on Twitter. We’ve got customers that can’t take their cars home.”
He said that the workshop was full of cars and one customer had contacted him to say she was trying to get the courtesy car back to them but she was stuck at B&Q. “I understand this is happening, it’s a fact of life, but some information would be nice.”
Richard Blair, a director and general manager at Arundale Peugeot in Seamer Road, said “We have been affected on all fronts. We’ve not got people through the showroom or the workshop. We are trying to contact customers to tell them the situation.”
Equally staff at Boro Tyres in Seamer Road were unable to work as customers could not drop off their cars.
A spokesman for Currys and PC World said: “We have been massively affected by it.
“We haven’t been informed what’s been happening by anybody. I know there has been a major gas leak and if we were in danger they would evacuate us.”
MKM Builders not only saw a drop in trade, estimated to cost £7,000, but could not bring their wagons back in to be stocked up.
Traffic flow on diversion routes was hindered further when a blue Peugeot crashed in to the traffic lights at the junction with Queen Margarets Road at 4.45pm.
Northern Gas Networks said it hoped to have the road open before rush hour traffic today, but that it was dependant on the completion of a full repair.
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Weather for Scarborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North east
Comments
There are 4 comments to this article
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Animalhouse
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 11:34 AMHey Shopper123, slow down a bit! The road blocks and diversion were set up at the only places that traffic could be sent in a different direction. I managed to go to Currys, and the children were collected by minibuses from school, so people were allowed in. If you had been along there and smelled the gas from as far away as Currys, you wouldn't relly want to go much further. So get down off your high horse too!
Shopper123
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 09:04 AM@ almawi if you had been listenin to the radio properly they had stated METRES not miles and yes businesses we're affected became more of this article was about te affect it had had there is another article on how the residents of the neighbouring streets were affected so get off your high horse because I'm sure if you had a business that was YOUR lively hood and kept a roof per yours and yours staffs head you would be pretty annoyed and upset about being kept in the dark about what was going on and how much money had been lost I'm sure there was no need to close such a big stretch of road that much to all traffic they could have allowed access to businesses furthest away from the leak and then they could have double back on themselves but from what ieread and heard the gas company and the police just didnt haw a clue what to do!!!
baconroll
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 08:06 AMYorkshire Coast Radio mis-reported that people were evacuated for 100 miles! Imagine the chaos if that were true! A small area is affected for a day whilst the area is made safe and businesses moan, has not the snow affected business as well?
Damoo
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 10:33 PMWelll done SEN. 3 little paragraphs on all those kids and residents that were affected by this gas leak and 8 on how much money businesses have lost for 1 day. Money obviously matters more than people being at serious risk in this article .
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