KIRKBY Lonsdale shivered amid sub-zero temperatures when the town's 710 properties with gas lost their supply twice.

Residential homes kept elderly residents warm with electric heaters, hot drinks and extra blankets, and some estaurants served limited menus to diners as they found themselves without gas hobs and central heating.

Jeanette Jackson for Transco, the company which looks after the gas pipeline system, said the supply went off around 6.30am on Sunday and teams of engineers were drafted in immediately to get people reconnected.

The fault lay with a piece of equipment which reduces gas pressure in towns and villages. Most people had their gas supply back on by 11pm on Sunday, apart from those householders who were away.

However, at 4.30pm on Monday the equipment, which was being monitored, failed again, and Transco drafted in 100 engineers from all over the country, who worked until midnight to reconnect 80 per cent of customers. Transco, which said everyone should have been reconnected by lunchtime today, apologised for the nconvenience. The faulty equipment has now been replaced.

January 7, 2003 11:30