Shropshire caravan park residents rationing gas amid shortage

Residents at a caravan park say they are at risk of running out of gas over Christmas to heat their homes.

A national shortage means Breton Park in Muxton, Shropshire, is down to its last few bottles and has been unable to source more from Calor Gas.

Chair of the residents association, Christine Lawrie, said one elderly resident had to leave as she ran out of gas to power her central heating.

Calor Gas apologised and said it was working hard to fix the problem.

"We have residents on here that are literally out of gas," Ms Lawrie said. "It's been the last month, six weeks, and it's just getting worse and worse.

"We have something like about 50 bottles on the waiting list in the park."

About 200 people live at Breton Park on the outskirts of Telford and for most of the mobile homes, Ms Lawrie estimates two bottles of gas would be needed every four weeks during the winter.

"We have people on this park in their 90s who are literally running on red," she said. "The problem is Calor are still failing to supply us with enough gas to meet our demands."

Ben Pagett, who works at the park, said they were down to their last few bottles and there was not enough to go round.

"There will be people going without gas," he said.

Calor said high demand and restricted supply, coupled with "global shipping disruption" meant it was struggling to meet "unprecedented" customer demand.

The company said it was working hard to increase its supply and urged customers to return empty or unused cylinders to improve circulation and availability.

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