COMMENT: Why did going green make me see red?

How a simple “greener-living”  fuse upgrade from Northern Powergrid turned into a comedy of errors. Plus: Read on to discover how you can turn roadworks into cash.

 It wasn’t meant to be this way.

In the summer of 2025, determined to do our bit for the environment, we decided to get a car charger installed. Our electrician helpfully let us know we needed to call Northern Powergrid, who would decide whether they needed to upgrade our domestic fuse.

The man from the leccy came round, spoke about loops, jointing, and wattage – most of his words landed somewhere in the hills of the south pennines, but the upshot was we’d need to get a fuse upgrade.

“It’s a simple job” he predicted

“Great – when can you come?”  - I said with a dash of EV-fuelled giddiness.

 “Not sure – I’ll get the ball rolling – we will need to close the road but don’t worry – it’s straightforward.”

 Hearing the words ‘road’ and ‘closure’ is enough to strike dread into the hardiest of Yorkshiremen – but the bloke from Northern Powergrid was carrying an impressive clipboard exuding confidence, so I felt in safe hands.

 Little did we know this sliding doors moment would result in a near death experience, and a financial apology.

 And this road closure angst is real. So many of Calderdale’s road have had open heart surgery over the past few years, leaving even the gentlest of souls gnawing off their fingers. Anyone remember the infamous “hole in the road” that amputated Todmorden from Hebden Bridge for an entire season….? 

Thing is, our natural instinct is to furiously thump keyboards and blame the council, yet for much of the time (as I discovered)  they are easy targets who are, for the most part, little more than innocent bystanders. 

I digress.

Fourteen months after our visit from confident clipboard man, we received an email from someone I’d never heard of called Helen from O’Connors. Turns out they were coming next week to dig up the road and give us a shiny new fuse. And it would only take two days. 

 On the appointed day two men from O’Connors (Northern Powergrid subbies) turned up, armed not with clipboards but with a digger. Quickly followed by a small battalion of barriers and temporary traffic lights.

 Day 1 went well – half the road closed  - ducting in – backfilled – tarmac laid – half the road good as new.

 Day 2 went less well.

 Another hole was dug and backfilled. But no jointing team turned up. Dig team left. And then – at about 7.30pm that night our neighbour from 50m down the road knocked on the door.

 “Can you smell gas? We’ve rung the gas board”

As soon as we stepped outside, despite a strong north-easterly, the unmistakeable stench of “don’t light a match” hit the back of my skull.

 Half an hour later a couple of vans screeched up the hill through the methane-filled twilight. The cavalry were here. 

The chaps from the gas board immediately set to work and quickly confirmed there was enough noxious stuff outside our house to create a somewhat spectacular firework display. 

After digging out the trench, so lovingly backfilled by O’Connors, they spotted the problem. The top had been taken off the gas main, they knew this because it was lying at the bottom of the trench. The same trench that Northern Powergrid’s sub-contractors had back-filled a few hours earlier before clocking off for the day.

“We get this quite often” said the emergency gas man. 

“Subcontractors hit a gas main, leave, and don’t report it – because they are liable for the cost of us fixing it”.

 “Isn’t that dangerous?” I asked.

 “Yes. Very.”

Being a bit of journo I wanted to check what the rules are. And the Health Safety Executive guidance couldn’t be more explicit:

 "If the service connection to a building or the adjacent main has been damaged, warn the occupants to leave the building, and any adjoining building, until it is safe for them to return”.

 Not: “when you hit a gas main, backfill the hole and go home for tea.”

The main was patched up for the evening and for the next two days our road was all amber flashing lights, barriers, and ever larger holes being dug. 

 Naturally, I’d been on the phone to Northern Powergrid giving my thoughts on their subbies leaving a leaking gas main outside my front door, and politely requesting they conduct an investigation.  Meanwhile in another flurry of phone calls I’d been trying to establish exactly when Northern Powergrid (or more probably their subbies) would be returning to finish off the very “simple” fuse upgrade.

 “Friday, if not Saturday, but definitely no later than Sunday” came the promise.

 That weekend was an endless dystopian phone call to Northern Powergrid and their subbies O’Connors. Their customer service teams were lovely. Terribly understanding and polite. But they couldn’t do the one thing I wanted more than anything else in the world: upgrade the fuse, fill in the big holes outside our front door, and take away the temporary traffic lights. 

 Promises were made. But seemingly the combined might of Northern Powergrid’s customer service management team, nor the nice bloke from O’Connors, could get anyone to come and sort the fuse out, backfill the holes, and remove the temporary traffic lights.

 By the following Tuesday no-one had shown up, and we went away on holiday for a week. Fully expecting, by the time we returned, for gleaming new tarmac to greet our return.

 Nothing prepared us for the scene that greeted our return. The temporary traffic light batteries had run out, barriers were scattered, and the holes in the road greeted us like old friends.

Back on the phone, another date was promised: second week of December. And, no – it couldn’t be changed.

 The explosion could be heard in Blackpool.

 Having already registered a complaint, I decided to wheel out the big guns and dropped a note to their press office. Regaling the whole sorry story – big holes, temporary traffic lights, three days on the phone, near death experience… the usual – they promised to look into it and get back to me. 

 On Thursday I received a call from one of Northern Powergrid’s senior connections managers, after bending his ear for a very therapeutic thirty minutes, he pinky-promised the job would be completed ‘tomorrow’. 

Side bar: on Thursday tea-time a bemused chap from Calderdale council’s highways team was looking at the non-functional temporary traffic lights and barriers, asking if I knew anything about them. Turns out the permit for the roadworks had run out the previous week and that Northern Powergrid would be “100% getting fined”.

 At this point I was starting to tot up how much our “simple” fuse upgrade was costing. Quite aside from the scheduled two day road closure, there was the unscheduled emergency gas main works that went on for another two days (involving about eight different people and a lot of vans), the fine from the council, the inevitable fine from the HSE (once they complete their investigation), and the team required to backfill and complete all the works. 

 And yes, gentle reader, the works were completed once my new friend in the Northern Powergrid connections team got involved.

Got an issue? Don't call the council (it probably isn't their fault)

There is a happy ending. Earlier this week a cheque popped through the letter box to compensate for all the inconvenience. Official complaints can be worthwhile.

 Here’s what I learned.

 Over-running roadworks are rarely the council’s fault. And by contacting them or your local councillor, who will then contact the highways team, who will then contact whoever is running the roadworks… well, its just creating a digital footprint that will get you nowhere.

 If you are being negatively impacted by over-running roadworks, or roadworks that haven’t gone to plan, complain.

 Whichever utility company is causing grief in your life, find out their number/email and send them a Stage 1 complaint. 

 By complaining to them directly they must follow a process laid out by the regulator, and if they don’t come up with the goods you can then escalate to Ofgem, Ofwat, or Ofcom.

A Northern Powergrid spokesman told us:

"This should never have happened. It's embarrassing, and it's happening far too often."

They also confirmed the incident involving their sub-contractors hitting a gas main, backfilling the hole, and leaving site without informing local householders is being investigated calling the incident "unacceptable".