Cadent want to dig up my drive without returning it to its original condition

moochi123

This is my first post but would value some advice

Two weeks ago we received a card through the post from Cadent to say that they would be replacing the pipes on our road the next day and would therefore need to cut off our gas supply. The next day however, we were leaving to go on holiday but based on the information on the card, we were informed that the gas would only be out for the day and be reconnected by the evening.
The engineers came early in the morning - our gas meter is in our house and therefore needed access into our property to cut off the gas. They cut off our gas and we arranged for family to be in the house to allow the engineers to turn it back on whilst we left for our holiday.

However, as we were leaving, the engineer knocked on our door and advised us that the pipes from the road to our meter also needed to be changed which meant digging up our drive. We only had our 500 sq ft Drive tarmaced 2 years ago and dont want Cadent to dig up a trench through it.
The problem now is we have come back from holiday and have no gas because Cadent have disconnected our gas but dont want our property damaged since it cost a lot to lay the tarmac. We have two little children in the house with no hot water or heating!

I want to know:
1. what my rights are and whether i can request that Cadent replace the pipes wthout damaging the tarmac. At best they an lay the pipes but return the tarmac to its orignal condition which would mean tarmacing the entire drive.
2. As they are changing the pipes on their own volition, can they opt not to replace the pipes?

Thank you

[Deleted User]

Cadent have the law on their side. They have undisputed rights of access to all their pipes to your property. If you deny them access to their pipes on your property they will simply cut your gas supply off
.When they dig up drives it is mostly not physically possible to return the drive exactly as it was. I think you must expect to end up with a less than perfect drive. This may well be in their T and C s
I have never seen a road dug up in sections patched up back to a perfect match.
The same thing applies for electric cables.
an English mans home is not his castle when over 200 separate bodies have rights of access to properties

moochi123

Thank you. You are right. We have no gas and therefore are not really in a position to argue with them. I wanted to jnow if there was a precedent to argue otherwise but i guess not in this case.

D_M_E

Does the new pipe have to follow the line of the old one?

Can they not route it along the edge of the drive instead - presumably less work for them, only a bit of earth to dig up for the trench to put it in?

macman

So you'd be happy for your little children in the house to be potentially endangered by leaky and rusty 100 year-old gas pipes for the sake of your driveway surface? They're not changing them just for fun.

Lorian

I have no idea if they do it or not, but in your position I'd be asking if they could mole the new pipes in. Still involves a little digging but much less impact on a new drive.

maisie_cat

I suppose it depends on the surface, we have a tarmac drive with a paved path and they went under the path and simply put the stones back. To be honest, if they had only the option to dig the tarmac I wouldn't have refused, the patching will not be obvious after a year or so.

jk0

Are you sure you did not misunderstand?


My gas pipe was replaced a few years ago. They (amazingly) pushed the new plastic pipe up inside the old one from the road, about 40ft to my gas meter. No digging was needed except out in the road.

kazwookie

'Bribe' the workmen with tea / biscuits and ask them direct to try not to make too much mess relaying the tarmac.

But as other has said
1. Mole the new pipe
2. Go round the edge of the property

matelodave

jk0 wrote: »

Are you sure you did not misunderstand?


My gas pipe was replaced a few years ago. They (amazingly) pushed the new plastic pipe up inside the old one from the road, about 40ft to my gas meter. No digging was needed except out in the road.

They did that where I used o live as the gas meter was at the back of the garage they pushed the pipe through the existing one right up to the meter without causing any disruption inside the garage. I didn't even need to shift stuff.

Owain_Moneysaver

The utilities will almost always reinstate either by relaying existing blocks, where they haven't been damaged, or by tarmacking the trench.

If you think tarmac+tarmack would be a mismatch then create a contrasting feature path in brick or block over the pipe.