GAS is being slowly restored to homes in Herefordshire villages after their supply was cut off on Tuesday.

Gas engineers from Cadent were called in on September 6 after residents reported they had no gas.

Several hundred homes in Hampton Bishop and the surrounding area have been affected, with extra engineers drafted in yesterday to tackle the problem.

The task saw engineers having to go door to door to every affected home to ensure the gas was turned off before they could begin work to restore the supply.

But after more than a day with no gas, Cadent has confirmed that they have started to get gas back on to a small number of properties after 'purging' several kilometres of pipe.

In an update sent late last night (September 7), the company said this had followed a successful day, of testing and getting gas back into a significant proportion of the network.

A spokesperson said Cadent hopes to restore gas to at least a third of properties today.

"But we can't get too carried away," they said.

"We are still checking properties to safely switch off at the gas meter and we still need to test the remaining proportion of our network.

"Our priorities will be to ensure the remaining handful of properties are safely switched off. We have visited each of these properties a number of times, so if you know of anyone on holiday, do let us know.

"We will continue to test the remaining pipes in our network. So you may smell gas at some point tomorrow, whilst we vent the gas safely into the atmosphere. Once this has been completed, we will start getting gas back into the remaining network.

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"This is not a process that can be rushed. However, we will have approximately 50 engineers and staff on site, working hard to restore the gas. We will be working through the villages one sector at a time. Tomorrow (September 8), we will be able to share the sectors and the streets where we will start to restore gas supplies.

"Please ensure our engineers switch your gas back on. We have to complete safety checks at each home and business, before we are able to restore gas supplies. Please DO NOT try to do this yourself. At this stage, gas is not in all of our network yet.

"Once again, we will be at the Hampton Bishop Village Hall, if you have any further questions or you know someone who might need a little extra help at this time, come and let us know. We are here to help you."

Food trucks were on scene at Hampton Bishop Village Hall and at the Green Man pub yesterday to provide a hot meal to affected locals and will be returning again today, Cadent confirmed.

"We will be in your villages for the next few days and we won’t be leaving until everyone is back on gas," the spokesperson said.

"Unfortunately, we can't give timescales about when this work will be completed but be assured, we are working hard to restore gas as safely and quickly as possible.

"Thank you for your continued patience and understanding. The good news is that gas is being restored."