BOLTON MP Brian Iddon is to question British Gas about "loopholes" in its emergency service which left a Little Lever family shivering for two days.

Joanne Hill and her partner Andrew Kelly opted to have pre-payment gas and electricity meters installed in their Ellesmere Road home to avoid the risk of getting into debt.

But last weekend the couple realised they had just 31p left on their gas card and so Andrew went to a local shop to have it charged up.

But he was horrified when he was informed that the card was faulty and could not be charged and a replacement could not be provided until after the weekend.

"I was furious," Joanne said. "I am sure there must have been something that could have been done at the weekend.

Extra layer

"If your electric card breaks they give you a new card."

The family, who have two young children, use gas for heating and cooking.

Eldest child Thomas, aged two, had to be sent to his dad's house to keep warm while six-month-old Keiran, who suffers from asthma, was wrapped in extra layers of woolies.

Sunday dinner had to be taken to a friend's house to cook.

The family's case has now been taken up by Bolton South-east MP Brian Iddon, who is planning to contact British Gas about the "unacceptable loophole" in their customer service.

"I don't think people should be inconvenienced like this. I absolutely agree with Mrs Hill," he said.

"Since the privatisation of gas it has led to a few black holes down which people can fall without help.

"I am going to ask British Gas if they are going to consider plugging the loopholes."

"In cases like this we aim to get a new card to the customer before the next working day," said a British Gas spokesman.

Emergency

But he added that they were only contacted on Saturday afternoon by the family - too late for a replacement card to be sent to them that day.

They were sent one on Monday morning.

He added that the prepayment meters are fitted with £2 emergency credit to tide customers over.

However, this had already been used so was not available for the family.

"We strongly advise customers not to dip into the emergency credit," said the spokesman.

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