§ 33. Sir R. Caryasked the Paymaster-General if his attention has been drawn to the number of cases reported in recent months whereby a faulty or broken gas pipe in the street has made possible a seepage of gas into adjoining property, thus endangering the lives of residents, often when asleep and unaware of the dangerous proximity of seeping gas; and if he will refer this matter to the Gas Council.
§ Sir I. HorobinYes, Sir. This problem is under close examination by the Gas Council. Gas Boards have introduced surveys to locate potentially dangerous mains, and the Gas Council is carrying out a full scale investigation to determine the causes of mains fractures and the means of reducing them.
§ Sir R. CaryMay I ask my hon. Friend if he will invite the Gas Council to exercise particular caution in these areas in Lancashire, which are always threatened with mining subsidence? I think that stresses are set up in the earth which affect gas mains and gas pipes long before these stresses are indicated in the property above ground. I have only a hunch about this, but sometimes a good hunch is better than expert opinion.
§ Sir I. HorobinI am grateful to my hon. Friend. The trouble in this, as in some other matters, is that there is no complete unanimity among the experts, but the Gas Council is carrying out, as I have said, a most careful and urgent inquiry into the matter with a view to seeing that everything practicable can be done to reduce these fatalities.
§ Mr. W. R. WilliamsWill the hon. Gentleman direct the attention, in particular, of the North-Western Gas Board to the many serious cases which have occurred in Manchester and adjacent districts recently, where many residents are fortunate to be alive today, because of these seepages?