A family moved into a city hotel after their home gas supply remained disconnected after mains work in the area.

Eastern Daily Press: Shaun Bolton has been without gas for a week after he was disconnected during works on Drayton High Road. Picture: Shaun BoltonShaun Bolton has been without gas for a week after he was disconnected during works on Drayton High Road. Picture: Shaun Bolton (Image: Archant)

Now father Shaun Bolton will not allow gas engineers into the house until he gets a written guarantee that his hotel costs will be reimbursed.

Mr Bolton, of Drayton High Road, Norwich said workers installed a new gas main on January 19. However, he and his neighbour were not reconnected when it was completed.

'Fortunately for my neighbour he came home early and managed to catch them while they were still on site and they connected him. But by the time I got home in the evening and discovered I did not have gas they had already left.'

Mr Bolton, a divorced father of two, said it was his weekend to have his children aged seven and nine. 'I contacted the company that did the work straight away when I realised what was going on. They told me the problem was logged and that they would come back to me.

'I phoned a second time to be told the same story and when I phoned a third time, just after 8pm, I got a message saying the office was closed.'

Mr Bolton said he decided to check into a hotel with his children for the weekend and returned home on Sunday.

'An engineer was sent out on Saturday and told me they needed access to the house for the whole day. But they arrived unannounced and I had other obligations. I've now been sitting without gas for nearly a week.'

Mr Bolton said he wanted confirmation in writing that his hotel costs and the costs of being without gas would be reimbursed before he would let them return.

A spokesman for Cadent Gas said: 'We had been carrying out essential work to replace ageing gas mains in the area and to carry out this work we needed to temporarily disconnect the gas supply of properties in the area. We arranged for engineers to visit the resident at 7.30am on Saturday 20 January.

'Despite trying to contact the resident to get into the property to do the work, there was no response until 9.30am, when the resident refused to let the engineers in to do the work. Subsequent attempts to arrange to do the work were made but access was again refused by the resident.

'We have also offered the resident compensation in line with the statutory entitlement but this has not been accepted.'