RESIDENTS who were evacuated from their homes late at night due to a gas leak say more could have been done to help them find a place to stay.

They received a knock at the door from SGN engineers on Tuesday night and were asked to leave their properties, on Rax Lane in Bridport, as a safety precaution.

It was the same day residents were also experiencing a power cut.

Resident Beata Wysocka said: “The power went off at about 3pm and we were told it would be fixed by midnight. Then at about 10.30pm we were told to leave the property because there was a gas leak.”

Beata says that while she understands the evacuation was necessary for safety reasons, she believes more could have been done to help people find a place to stay.

“We didn’t know what to do,” she said. “We went to try and find a hotel but everywhere was full, so we had to sit in our car all night. At 2am in the morning in the car it was freezing cold and we were knackered as we’d been in work all day. Our neighbour was also in her car and she is in her 70s. We had nowhere else to go.

“I understand this was for safety reasons because it was too dangerous to stay at home - and the company did apologise - but maybe they could have helped us find somewhere. We were eventually allowed back in at about 4am. "We were cold and knackered.”

SGN was called to investigate reports of a gas escape on Tuesday.

Spokesman for the company Dan Brown said an electricity company had been carrying out work on its own network when they smelt gas. Engineers found that an electrical cable fault had damaged SGN's pipe, resulting in the leak.

Mr Brown said: “Three properties were evacuated as a safety precaution while we isolated the damaged pipe and carried out safety checks in the area.

“Affected residents have now been able to return to their properties.”

Mr Brown also said the company did offer residents accomodation. 

"Our team manager on site organised for affected residents to be put up in a hotel after being evacuated. The customer declined our offer and waited around until we confirmed it was safe to reoccupy the property," he said. 

Western Power Distribution says it had an intermittent fault on a section of underground electricity cable affecting residents in Rax Lane.

A spokesman for the company said: “An intermittent fault on the underground network can be difficult to pinpoint until it faults completely. On Tuesday night, when the fault became permanent, it would have affected some customers.

“Due to the gas leak we had to isolate a section of our network so that SGN could carry out the repair to their cable which resulted in us having to take 45 customers off supply so work could take place safely.

“Western Power Distribution could not start our repairs until SGN’s work was complete. We apologise to those customers affected and want to reassure them that our works are now complete and we do not anticipate any further disruption as a result of this fault. Reinstatement will follow once SGN are satisfied they have no other work to complete on site.”