Cleat Hill public meetings

Panel 

• Craig Austin, Bedford Borough Council
• Sarah Stevens, Bedford Borough Council
• Steve Wilson, Environmental Protection Group
• Wayne Walton, Rockall Safety 
• Claire Halliwell, Bedford Borough Council
• Antigua Riley Corion, Bedford Borough Council

Mayor Tom Wootton welcomed residents to the meeting, inviting those in the room to reflect on what work has happened to enable residents to go home, and discuss what is being done as we move forward in recovery. 

Updates from the Panel

Additional Monitoring Wells and Monitoring Works (Steve Wilson)

Additional investigation and monitoring works are required (which have been explained previously in the risk assessment report) to understand where the gas is in the ground and what level of risk there is as we move forward in recovery from this incident. We will drill monitoring wells, the majority of which will be drilled at shallow depths. This will include a series of holes to depths of 5 metres, to 15 metres, and one hole that goes to 50 metres. 

This staged approach is important for us to understand what is happening in the shallow ground and if there is any long -term risk. The work is also designed to understand what other works may be necessary to make sure that residents are safe and do not require in-house gas monitoring. Once these additional works have been completed, we will put equipment on the top of the monitoring wells.

We have been speaking to contractors regarding the drilling of the monitoring wells, before beginning the procurement process. This process will take time, due to legal issues which we must work through so that we can get access into the land. (This is the case both for the estate, and for the green spaces around local pathways). 

We now plan to collect further information to investigate the current levels of gas in the ground and plan the best way forward. One company we have been talking to have a system which involves using of a special camera which counts molecules of methane that are in the air. The camera would on a trailer which raises up into the air, takes pictures of the ground, measuring methane emissions their concentration in the air. 

The other thing that we want to do is to put permanent continuous gas monitors around the top of the borehole so that we can measure the emissions and get a much better understanding of how fast the gas is coming up the borehole. We need that information to inform the long-term risk assessment. 

With regards to monitoring on site, we are still doing the monitoring, MRSL are monitoring around the top of the borehole and around the estate, readings are stable, and there is no indication that things are getting any worse. British Geological Survey are still doing their surveying around the estate, monitoring in the steel spikes that have been installed in the ground and just above ground level at set locations. 

In-house monitoring alarms (Sarah Stevens and Wayne Walton)

Update on installations

88 plug-in devices have been installed across 44 homes. Since we last met, we have done additional works in two more properties which have allowed occupants to move back into their homes. We are still working with a small number of households that are not yet back in their homes, because they need those more advanced monitoring systems. We continue to work with Rockall Solutions to develop those, and we are hopeful that over the coming weeks we will have everyone back into their homes.

We want to thank all residents for how accommodating you have been. All households with monitoring devices installed should also have access to the Blackline Safety portal (the online web tool). If you have any questions or concerns about the portal, or about the way that the devices work in your homes, please let us know.

The technical cell still meets twice a week, reviewing the data for all alarms as well as the other monitoring data. We have also been conducting tests in homes, and testing the emergency protocol so that as a partnership can be confident that all partners know what they should do in the event of an alarm activating. We have the offer of a test, and we are happy to accommodate these to provide extra reassurance over the coming months to any residents. 

Learning from alarm activation on 6 January 2025

There was an alarm activation on January 6, where Wayne Walton and I were on site doing some installations, meaning we were able to observe how the response protocol worked in real life. The fire service was notified by Blackline Safety, the family within that household used alarms appropriately and they engaged positively with Blackline Safety, followed all of the instructions and made their way to that evacuation point. The feedback from partners is that the protocol worked well, the fire service was deployed in line with protocol, supported by the police, Cadent, and my officers in terms of offering advice and support to the family. 

One issue raised was that the alarm was activated at quite a high level. To better understand the issue, the device was taken out of the house, sent away for testing and replaced with a new device. Blackline Safety have since informed us that the device was working correctly at the time that it activated, but that it did not detect methane. From the subsequent tests, it appears that this may have been caused by a plug-in air freshener device within the property. We have shared some advice on the website around the use of similar devices in the house. 

It is incredibly unusual for this to happen, but the tests do confirm that the chemical composition that activated the alarm was something very similar to a standard household air freshener. We have since done additional work to review the protocol and the response that took place on that day, and residents are also welcome to share any feedback too. 

(Wayne Walton) We were fortunate to be on site at the time and so this enabled the speed of our response getting the device to Blackline Safety for testing. On my way home the following day, I bought the same air freshener and tried to replicate it at home and could not. The gas levels jumped straight to 58% and dropped off again. Normally, you would see a gradual build-up  if it was natural gas, and it would get to an alarm point; this was very instant, then nothing. 

Roadmap (Craig Austin)

Went through the timeline as shown in the PowerPoint slides, noting that the actions being undertaken to install monitoring wells is very complex. Conversations have taken place with the executors of the estate and their representatives, and it is in everyone’s interest to be able to do these additional monitoring works. Communication with the estate to reassure them will continue. 

Feedback and residents' associations (Claire Halliwell, Antigua Riley Corion) 

As previously discussed, forming a residents’ association would enable residents to have a louder collective voice at these meetings. Through our ongoing communication with you, we understand outstanding issues as being: 

• insurance implications
• mortgage advice (such as what happens if you decide to sell your property)
• the impact on legislation and what that looks like in the long term. 

In the PowerPoint slides there is more information about setting up a residents’ association and we would like to understand what the appetite is for one. The Council is here to support residents, and if there is interest in moving forward with a residents’ association we would like to hold an information session where you can come, ask questions about what one might look like, and start to think about what support you would need from us. 

There are two types of residents’ association - informal and formal.., Either will enable you to have a stronger shared voice that can assist with lobbying and making decisions going forward. A formal residents’ association is made up of a larger percentage of the group and there is a little bit more that we have to do in terms of governance. 

Questions and answers

Comment from resident: I would like to say that the report that Steve Wilson wrote, in terms of the overall risk, was an excellent report and very informative. At the tail end, it highlights what you've said tonight about the various steps you're going through, and it did highlight that the ultimate goal is to get an acceptance certificate where it effectively signs off that the land is now back to a safe situation. I have not heard that mentioned tonight as the final goal of the plan, and to me that is the final goal of the plan, to get to that document.

Reply: (Steve Wilson) The aims that I stated in that report are still there and still stand.

Question: What inferences can be drawn from the fact that the gas that is coming around the borehole is stable? I am wondering whether there might be a small leak in the borehole and therefore it is not just entrain gas, but entrain gas plus a bit more? Or would you expect it to be still stable with entrain gas?

Answer: (Steve Wilson) It could be entrained gas, but the purpose of the investigation is to prove or disprove that. We think that gas got came up the borehole and then spread it a shallow level underneath the clay layer. There could be a significant volume of gas in there that is now coming out slowly, so it could be that entrained gas. Equally, it could be that there is a leak on the actual sealing itself. The purpose of the investigation that we are doing is so that we get a much better understanding of that, so that we understand the risk.

Question: Is it possible to get the green fence in Wagstaff Close, with access to the site, put back up?

Answer: (Craig Austin) We will get somebody to have a look at it and see if we can. 

(Sarah Stevens) The fence was falling quite a lot, so thanks to residents for letting us know. It was put in by the contractors that the police were using when the damaged building was removed. I have had some conversations with them about ensuring that it is stable And I am happy to take that forward.

Question: In terms of drilling or making boreholes for further monitoring wells at different levels, are you thinking of doing that borehole drilling in relation to the cordon zone? Or will it be just in the area where the original borehole is? And what is the timescale for this work?

Answer: (Steve Wilson) The main focus is around the borehole itself, but we have got proposed locations that are outside the garden area of 7 Cleat Hill as well. It does not presently cover the full extent of the estate. 

(Craig Austin) We cannot provide a timescale at present, as we are working with the executors of the estate in relation to that. However, it is in all of our interest to get this work done.

Question: Regarding EWR, it was mentioned that they were going to be doing boreholes. If I remember the Mayor said that they were not going to do any drilling of boreholes for three months, are we coming to the end of that time?

Answer: (Mayor Tom Wootton) Yes, we did get a letter from them saying they were going to have a moratorium on any drilling along the north Bedfordshire route, which comes to a close quite soon and I think that is something we can chase up with them again. We have a series of meetings in our diaries with East West Rail, and the Chief Executive and I will follow this up.

(Steve Wilson) Shortly after I had been asked to advise or join the technical cell, East West Rail approached me independently and asked me to advise them on how they could drill those boreholes safely and whether they could drill the boreholes. I am currently going through the procurement stage with them and I am waiting on them to send information for me to review, so I have not done any work for them yet in terms of advising them on how and if they can drill the boreholes.

Question: Am I right in saying the monitors will stay with us? As I understand the monitors are on a 12-month contract? 

Answer: (Craig Austin) The monitoring that we put in place is for your safety, we will be there to support you and these measures will be in place until we can implement other measures to enable us to be able to say it is safe and to give you the assurances mentioned earlier. 

(Steve Wilson) We obviously need access to the garden of 7 Cleat Hill to be able to drill the holes around the well, and we do need that information. But as I said, I am trying to think of alternatives where we can start drilling some of the boreholes in advance of getting access to that address.

Comment from resident: I heard a rumour, and it may or may not be true, that the housing developer at the top of Cleat Hill, the site that drops down in the valley, that they had some kind of gas escape, gas leak or hit some gas.

Reply: (Laura Church) We have not found any truth in that rumour. We have followed up with the Fire Service and with the developer. We have not found any information that supports it, but if anyone has information that they can give us - some dates or anything that we can look at into a bit more - we will look further into it.

(Steve Wilson) There is no evidence that there's been a gas leak there. What might have started it is there was an old brick pit on part of that site and when they did the site investigation, they did investigative bore holes to understand what was in the ground for the estate, and they installed gas monitoring wells in that site as well. They did find some carbon dioxide and maybe a little bit of methane, which is not unusual in what is called ‘made ground’ as it is fill material that they put back in. Those houses that are built over the top of the quarry have got gas membranes in the houses to stop that gas coming up into the houses, so it wasn't deep gas, but I suspect that that is how that rumour has started. 

Comment from resident: From the risk assessment, it said 7 Cleat Hill possibly had a well. Is that confirmed? Also, with the boreholes that are going to be dug, my concern is whether there is any drainage system connected alongside that well?

Answer: (Steve Wilson) It has not been confirmed. The Police and Fire Service did some geophysical surveys, and have explained that they have potentially found the location of a well, but it is not proven at the moment. In terms of drilling the boreholes, the prime consideration is health and safety. Part of the purpose for the the geophysical survey was to also see if there were any shallow trenches across the garden, because we need to keep an open mind and to see if there is something else that could have caused it. 

Question: Why are the monitors placed at floor level and not placed in the ceiling as methane is a thin gas?

Answer: (Steve Wilson) It is a common misconception that in these situations methane rises to the ceiling and that is where you should put the monitors. The best place to put those gas monitors is at floor level, so you get the earliest advance warning of gas coming in; that is accepted practice in the industry where you put them into houses..

Question: The air freshener contains classical gases, one of them being the octane. From what I have understood is that octane linked to petroleum gas? In which case why do not air fresheners obviously give out that petroleum? Is there any other confidence that you can give me that that air freshener really did trigger the alarm, and it wasn't another gas because the methane detector can only detect methane.

Answer: (Wayne Walton) I am not a manufacturer of air fresheners, but anything that you spray normally is propelled by a gas under pressure and air fresheners are no different. It has a time delay where it is forcing a mixture with gas out of a minute hole. If you read the back of it, it lists a dozen gases that are in there, all of which are heavy gases. It was more about the confidence for me in the air freshener that triggered that alarm. 

We cannot say with 100% confidence that it was the air freshener that triggered the alarm because we could not prove it; Blackline Safety tried to test it, and I personally bought one and put my G7 under it for two days and couldn't replicate it. What we can determine is it was not natural gas because it did not show up at all as natural gas. The sensor that is in the G7 does a range of gases, methane is one of those, natural gas is one of those and it did not detect that. We are 100% confident it was not a natural gas leak, and we can prove that because we have tested it, and we know it wasn't, and the readings from the sensor tell us that.

(Steve Wilson) In addition to what Wayne explained earlier, you do not just get a spike if it was coming from the ground, and you would get a gradual build-up and a gradual decay afterwards. The other thing is that literally within minutes of that alarm going off, MRSL went in there with two individual gas meters and did not find any evidence of methane in the house anywhere, and later on Cadent went in with a third meter, which was a different make to the two that MRSL had. 

(Sarah Stevens) It is worth noting that there was more than one device in that house and the other devices in the house remained at zero throughout the entire event and all of the devices in neighbouring properties remained at zero throughout the event as well. What we do have is just one single device that spiked very suddenly and then returned. The advice from Blackline Safety is that you take the monitor with you, so as soon as you would leave the house, that particular device is no longer giving an accurate reading of the property, but the two other devices in that property were working throughout and didn't record anything, so we were not relying just on that one device. We did look at the readings for all the neighbouring devices and the devices that were in the home at the time that the alarm activated.

(Steve Wilson) As part of the response we also asked BGS to go and monitor around the garden and the area of the house on the following day and there was nothing that indicated that the gas emissions had increased. Everything was at background levels in the garden.

Question: Can we get a list of the seven gases that the detector also picks up?

Answer: (Wayne Walton) Sarah has the data sheet from the manufacturer, but I can send it again if needed. 

Question: On the activation of the alarm on 6t January, among other things, one of the things that was quite concerning was the length of time that the residents were out of the house for. In terms of the refining the protocols, what lessons might be learned from this? 

Answer: (Sarah Stevens) We have been honest over the way that we have been learning a lot of this with you. 

When that alarm activated whilst the immediate response protocol worked seamlessly, the fire service attended quickly, we had not entirely thought through what that next step would be. We have learned a lot from that exercise, that interaction with Blackline Safety, and the technical report that was then put together. Whilst we hope it will not happen again, we have absolutely taken on board learning points.. 

Comment: I appreciate it is always complicated for executors and probate, but I feel slightly perturbed by the fact that you are in a position where you are having to navigate this road with them in order to gain their confidence and permission. It feels a little bit like we are hostage to fortune with these guys as they do not live in our roads. We need access and way through and that is for the good of the wider community, and I think maybe they don't grasp that. 

Answer: (Craig Austin) I hear what you are saying, and I feel a similar frustration myself. The important thing is that we have those conversations and do what we can to move things forward.

(Laura Church) As Steve also outlined, we are also working on other options as well, but we would prefer to work with the family as that seems a better option.

Question: By post we have been given an opportunity to submit a victim personal statement. From this can we infer the police do anticipate bringing criminal charges?

Answer: (Laura Church) We will need to ask the Police to reply on that one and do a follow-up.

Question: Richard Fuller MP received a letter from Alex Norris MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, where he said that in special circumstances and for a limited geographical area the Council can withdraw permitted development permission. Are the Council considering this?

Answer: (Laura Church) I do not think we have seen a copy of that letter, but it is something that we will look at. I we would want to be clear about the advice that the Under- Secretary of State has given. 

Question: I live at 3 Cleat Hill and have a wonderful view of the borehole and the blue scaffolding tower which is stuck there. I would have thought most of the people would not want that constant reminder of that tower there, could it be removed? 

Answer: (Paul Bradley, HSE) the scaffold belongs to the builder, it does not need to be there for any purposes that I can suggest. It would need police permission to remove it because it may or may not be part of their investigation but there are no objections from myself. 

(Laura Church) We will follow up with the Police on the status of the scaffolding stack and and whether it could be removed.

Question: You mentioned there was a possibility of a well at 7 Cleat Hill, will there be a check to see if I have one on my property?

Answer: (Steve Wilson) The only well is shown on number 7, as marked on the historical maps. If there were two wells there, it would be unusual for the OS to not mark them both, and again, it's delving back in history. As you said, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that they were sharing the well as well. But the first thing is to understand whether it is the well at number 7 and then we have to look at the risks to the other houses, but that is why we have got the gas monitoring in place.

Closing remarks from Laura Church 

Laura asked the room if they found it helpful to bring everyone back together again for the panel to give residents an update of where we are. Laura noted that the suggestion is that we bring residents together when there is something important to update on, but added that we would welcome some further thoughts from residents about how we communicate and how you might want to work together on the other issues going forward that we haven't yet concluded. She thanked everyone for attending and said she would like to echo all of Sarah's comments, noting that residents have been through a lot with us and residents have responded really positively when we have asked for information and when we have asked questions. 

Mayor Tom Wootton formally closed the meeting and thanked everyone for attending.

Council Chamber, Bedford Borough Council

Panel

• Bedford Borough Council, Chief Executive – Laura Church (Chair)
• Bedford Borough Council, Director of Environment - Craig Austin
• Bedford Borough Council, Manager for Community Safety & Resilience – Sarah Stevens
• Bedfordshire Police, Chief Inspector – Katherine Rivers
• Bedford Fire and Rescue Service, Assistant Chief Fire Officer – Jim Davies

Mayor Tom Wootton welcomed residents to the meeting, sharing that Paul Swale's funeral will be at 12:00pm on Thursday 13 December at the Saint Albans Woodland Burial Ground, Keysoe, MK44 2JP. The wake will then be held at Mowsbury Gold Club, and Paul's family would like to share that any neighbours wanting to pay their respects are very welcome. 

Mayor Tom Wootton asserted that this announcement highlights the significance of the work that the LRF is doing to ensure that residents are safe, and able to return home feeling safe. 

He also shared that HSE and BGS would unfortunately not be able to join the meeting to answer any questions around gas or the borehole, BGS have provided the latest readings which can be found in the information pack: Slides used at the meeting (PDF).

Questions related to gas will be taken away, and we will work to answer your questions and keep the full list of questions found at the bottom of this page up to date and accurate. 

Updates from the Panel

Cordon update (Bedfordshire Police)

Katherine apologised for any problems at the cordon over the first couple of days since the new process came in place, hopefully it is now a little bit smoother. Bedfordshire Police are continuing to maintain that cordon around Cleat Hill in order to keep the public safe, following advice from the technological cell based upon residual risk that remains at the site. The cordon is going to remain in place for public safety until we can confirm that the natural gas levels have stabilised. 

The advice from the police and other agencies involved in the incident responses, therefore, is that residents and the general public remain outside that 100-metre cordon whilst the multi-agency work is continuing.

As requested last time, we looked at the existing process for residents to book appointments through the local authority to return to properties temporarily and this remains unchanged. Therefore, residents with pre-booked appointments through Bedford Borough Council will not be asked to sign the advisory note or have it read to you. 

As previously advised, anyone who chooses not to follow the advice on the advisory note and seeks to enter the cordon outside the current pre-booking process, will be asking to read and sign that advice note police officers at the scene to confirm they recognise they are entering the cordon at their own risk. If you refuse to sign that note, then it will be read to you and it will be recorded on the officer's body worn video.

As a further update, the footpath that crosses from the island across into the park has been reopened for now as that was outside the cordon.

Risk assessments 

Sarah Stevens gave an overview of the criteria being used as part of the risk assessments. We are looking at the construction of your homes which is a big piece of work undertaken this week. It will also take into account all of the gas readings that have been collated by the appropriate agencies, including all of the readings that Cadent were undertaking whilst they were with us in previous weeks and then Mines Rescue Service more recently, as well as the gas and ground readings that have been collated by British Geological Survey. It will take into account all of the work that has been undertaken at the borehole, but with the caveat that we are still monitoring. It also looks at the impact of the recent weather changes on those readings. Assessments will also look at some of the people elements of your homes, so we're particularly keen to understand if there's anything we need to take on board around vulnerabilities that might impact on people's ability to self-evacuate or whether we need to look at that protocol in terms of how emergency services would engage with you if needed.

In terms of quality assurance, we have a large number of agencies that are working together to complete these assessments, and the next step is to make sure that we've got that consistent approach so that everything has been verified  all the information that's been collected is accurate . 

Last week on Monday, we talked about those surveys that we're going to be undertaking in people’s properties, so I'd like to thank all the residents that have worked with us in terms of providing keys. I know it has been quite complicated having to call you at short notice, but I really appreciate the fact that you've been flexible to help us. 

At end of yesterday, we completed 34 of those structural assessments and today we completed a further eight. Our aim is that we will have them done by tomorrow (Wednesday 27 November). 

In terms of the overall assessments, as there is input from a large number of agencies they are around 50% completed, but I envisage that it is going to move forward quite quickly now that we've worked through some of those home assessments, which are quite a significant part of the assessment templates.

So that is where we are in terms of that risk assessment process and clearly that feeds into the monitoring solution. For the people who were with us last Monday, we received positive feedback from the demonstrations that were provided by Rockall Safety. We have started that process of acquiring that equipment and we are also working on the protocol that will sit with that because we want to be sure that if an alarm activates that you individually or collectively would receive the appropriate response. All of the emergency services and the local authority are looking at what the protocol would be, so that we've got a really robust position in place. 

We are still looking at an aim to start those installations on the 5th and 6th December, and the monitoring equipment is coming from Canada. We are hopeful that we will have those two days as our initial phase of getting those units installed; the caveat is we have to complete those risk assessments and we clearly have to make them available to yourself so you have time to look at them and understand what they mean and then we need to be certain that the level of monitoring is appropriate in terms of the risk assessment that it recommends.

Questions raised

Question: From this map provided in the handout, the later data, it still shows gas levels around the borehole. So to me, nothing has really changed. Are BGS going to check how much gas is actually down there?

Answer: (Laura) The red dot on the map is the position of the borehole, not any gas readings from the borehole. We are asking BGS to come to the next meeting to give everyone a more detailed update on all their readings. Unfortunately, they were not able to attend tonight’s meeting.

(Fire) We continue to see fluctuations around the borehole site and this is to be expected, as we will see the levels change in relation to the atmospheric conditions. The levels are very low at the minute, what we are seeing are little bubbles of gas coming and going rather than a constant flowing. We do not know the level of gas, and this is something we need to explore but more in the medium/long-term as right now we are focussing on the monitoring the borehole and getting the installation of the monitoring equipment so that you can return to your homes.

Question: With the individual risk assessments can you give us an indication of how that will be relayed to us and timescale?

Answer: (Sarah) The first task is to get them populated and then we need to get that quality assurance done and we are looking to create that opportunity for residents to come and view them and speak to some of the experts that have helped to compile them. We will be looking to start the quality assurance process from Friday this week. 

Question: With the monitoring equipment, who will be installing them?

Answer: (Sarah) We will need access to properties and would hope to complete this installation in collaboration with residents. The positioning and number of monitors and the initial appropriate level of monitoring will be determined primarily by Rockall Safety and utilising the risk assessment. 

Residents will be offered training on how to activate, details of protocols and how to set up with the portal so you can monitor all the levels. The experts will determine and advise the correct positioning of the equipment, and we will sit down with residents to speak about how much involvement they want in this process.

Question: The latest data says it looks at readings in soil of depths between 45 and 70cm. Does it not need to look deeper to see how gas has gone 5,10, 20m down?

Answer: (Fire) BGS are responsible for doing that in soil monitoring and this is the limit to the depth of the equipment they have. It is that top level of soil that is key as that is where the gas comes from. 

Question: The information letter that has been sent to us states that “There are robust methods of carrying out continuous monitoring,”. What does mean and what is going to be in place post residents returning?

Answer: (Fire) We have previously talked about the telemetry system, this system doesn't rely on humans interacting with it and it is constantly being monitored at frequency both in house and in soil that will enable us to ensure that the readings that we do get are of a frequent enough nature for us to assure ourselves that the stability of those readings remain at a level that is safe.

Question: Will there be any sub-floor monitoring?

Answer: (Fire) Potentially yes, we are still working with the buyer now to identify the appropriate monitoring system based on the construction type of the premises. 

Question: Do we need to get these monitors in first and with the continuously low gas readings, are these the only criteria we need to meet in order for us to move back?

Answer: (Sarah) We do need to treat every house as an individual but, assuming the risk assessment doesn’t identify any other specific vulnerabilities for that home that would require additional thinking and the current level of readings remain unchanged, the key control measure we are looking for is that suitable in-house monitoring. 

Question: Have these risk assessments been drawn up with in collaboration with the insurance industry? Is there going to be a problem once these documents are live then anyone getting their insurance renewed?

Answer: (Fire) I do not know the answer to the second part, but for the first part, it hasn't been done in collaboration with anybody from the insurance industry at present. But it is something we can take away and investigate. 

Question: These three points I would like to raise on behalf of MP Richard Fuller. He raised them in his debate last week, I am not entirely sure that the technical and scientific committees are looking at these. First, as Jim mentioned, measuring the size of the gas reservoir, the second point being about whether the venting caused any fissures which may be of concern, and thirdly whether the venting caused such proportion of gas to be released that the pressure on the soil will now collapse. Are those three things being looked up?

Answer: (Fire) Currently no, it has been raised and it will need to be looked at in the medium to long-term, but at the moment we are looking at the safe return to homes. The options we had were to displace everybody for that period of time or we bring you back on a risk-based process, where we explained to you what the risks are left that we know of, some of these are unknown risks. That will take time and, as Richard highlighted in the Commons, at the moment there is no regulation, there is no accountability, and no one individual department that is going to be responsible for this. And as Richard highlighted in the Commons, it does take them time to work through all of these aspects. 

Question: At a previous meeting we were told that a monitoring device would be offered regardless of what the risk assessment says, is that still the case?

Answer: (Sarah) Yes, it is our intention to make some level of monitoring available to every home and the risk assessments are there to make sure that what we are offering is suitable and appropriate to the risk. 

Question: The readings are very low, it seems that we are awaiting data but there seems to be a plethora of data that says it is OK. What am I missing?

Answer: (Fire) The readings we are getting are low, which is great news. What we have continued to say is that it's not a week, a two-week, a three-week period that's going to allude to the fact that they are going to be that they're at a level that it's continuously safe. We do not know the amount of gas that may have gone into the soil and is potentially trapped there. 

We are still yet to see that pathway be informed because of the right metrological or geophysical conditions. Whether enough pressure has been released to make the gas lighter or movement within the substrate that it creates a new pathway to enable gas to move. We do need to you to be aware that we may see further gas travel during the different conditions throughout the year, which may mean that the risk assessment for your premise may change over time. That is the reason we cannot say that due to three weeks of gas monitoring at zero, that is now safe.

Question: Will we all be able to return home before Christmas?

Answer: (Fire) There is no one answer for everybody, this is depending on your homes individual risk assessment, and the correct monitoring being in place 

The risk assessment will look at the premises in regards to; the type of construction, the amount of gas that may be surrounding it, the type of gas, the amount of gas that may have gone into it over time. This will all mean that each property will have their individual risk assessment and the appropriate monitors to mitigate the risk. Your individual risk assessment will be communicated with you to ensure that you understand what this means for you and your property, and the monitoring that will be in place.

Question: I do not understand why people have got to sign in three times and I have got issues about that process as well because it is inconsistent. The police particularly can be quite obstructive, insisting you sign the form and will not let you go until you say you're not signing it. 

Answer: (Laura) When Katherine started her discussion about the cordon earlier, she highlighted that we have had some teething issues on the Friday and probably Saturday morning, which we apologise for and this was about how we are briefing all of our teams. If you are just going back temporarily to collect things you do not have to sign the notice anyway, so that if that's still being inconsistent, we will pick that up.

(Police) That process, if the visit to your property is already booked in with the LRF, then you wouldn't have to sign. 

The officers have been given a very prescriptive briefing about what to do in different scenarios. Anyone entering the 100-metre cordon without supervision will have to sign the advice note. If you don't wish to sign, please specify this to the officers on duty who will read the advice note to you, and make record of your name and decision not to sign. If there are issues, I will take that back and try and get that re-briefed so that it is clear. 

Question: Why are HSE and BGS not present at this meeting? 

Answer: (Laura) It relates back to the availability of people. British Geological Survey (BGS) have confirmed that they will have someone available for future meetings so that they can talk about the gas readings and answer your questions. For HSE, it is about availability. We will be talking to all of the partners about how we work with you and say that we would like to see them at these meetings, but it is just a circumstance that they weren't available today. Both BGS and HSE are committed to working with us in this emergency response, and they are very involved in all of the other meetings, such as the technical cell and strategic meeting, and they are populating the relevant sections of the risk assessments that are within their area of expertise. 

Question: What is the availability of deliveries and general day-to-day life of coming and going of people within those properties who choose to stay in their homes? I just want to make sure that if there is an impediment to deliveries for anybody, particularly Christmas with Amazon deliveries. Can you confirm it what the process is? Would the delivery drivers be able to go through the cordon? Or if not, is there a central location where these things could be forwarded to?

Answer: (Police) As it stands, any delivery driver or any others would have to sign the same advisory note to go through the cordon, but I can appreciate as you are saying, that could cause issues. I think that is something to take back and look further out.

(Craig) I'll take that forward as we have got enough space here as long as they'll be happy to deliver it there. 

Question: How long will the installation process take place for, and can we expect to return home potentially before Christmas? The risk assessment people came to our property today, can I have a bit more clarity about what sort of survey it is they are doing. 

Answer: (Sarah) It is not a structural engineer's report in the traditional sense in terms of if you were buying and selling your home, the person that's conducting the survey, has the qualifications in that space, but they're doing that visual assessment around the methods of construction of the property. It is more than just visual assessments of those access points (although that is part of the process), but a detailed assessment of construction methods such as the floors of the property and how they are constructed and what materials. In terms of the walls, whether they might be solid walls or cavity walls and things like service ducts and so whilst they are not necessarily needing to go up into your loft, they are looking at those potential service pathways that might enter into your loft. 

The risk assessment template that has been put together allows us to understand the key components of your property that might either encourage gas to move or might actually prevent gas from moving. The purpose of this exercise is very specifically to look for those components.

In terms of the installation, what we have arranged is for the specialists from Rockall Safety to be on scene for those two days. All the work we are doing with the risk assessments, the plans that we've drawn up will allow us to do lots of preparation work in advance of that so on those two days we can maximise their time on site.

There will be other agencies that will have a role to play in that day, so whilst Rockall Safety will be doing the part of the work that relates specifically to the monitors, we are already looking at how we can create a process that will allow us to keep moving from home to home to get as much out of those two days. So, whilst they cannot give an absolute number of how many houses we would hope to deal with in that window, we're already thinking about how we can streamline those processes to make them as effective as possible.

The agencies involved and some of the key processes that will need to happen will be consistent within many of the homes. We will try to put that together in terms of the advice for residents around how the alarm, how the monitors work, the protocols that will happen if an alarm activates, some of the reassurances to how you can access the portal to see the data on your alarms. We can prepare all of that in advance, but obviously the amount of time that we would spend in each home could vary quite significantly. 

Once we have spoken with your individual household and discussed your risk assessment and needs, you will have a much greater understanding of whether you would be part of that quite streamlined process on the 5th and 6th or whether there would be an additional level of monitoring that might be needed for your house.

Statement: I do not know about people in here, but I’m certainly getting fatigued by all of this, I was hoping for a little bit of clarity around some of the timelines as people have already mentioned Christmas. We've heard this evening there are things that are needed in the short term and there are needed in the long term, and I would love to see something on a single sheet of paper that tells me what short term stuff versus what is the longer term stuff. 

We have also heard it's a house-by-house assessment, but what's the criteria? We have heard in previous weeks zero in air, zero in house, background in soil. We have talked about monitoring being a dependency and risk assessments but what are these low levels as they seem low to me and you have still not been able to commit. 

I am also concerned about accommodation, as I feel we need that guidance on a weekly basis telling us if we need to be pushing our accommodation back by further week or two weeks. 

We have spoken previously about certification, where are we on that journey about the certification of the fix?  Also one of the things that we asked for was some case studies to help provide us with some level of reassurance to us. There is an awful lot of stuff out there that just needs to be gathered together, consolidated and played back to us at some level. 

We have also spoken about the legacy issues and Richard raised in Parliament last week we have had some assurance that in the longer term it should come back and there is a huge risk there. One way to mitigate that that this might be the pack that I am referring to, which would enable us in one year, five years or 10 years to say the repair was certified and this is the safety certificate. If we walk away from this without this stuff being sorted, we are storing up problems for the future.

Answer: (Laura) We are pulling together the different bits of data where you have asked us questions about what the insurance industry are doing, the certification piece, we can provide you with more information about where we have got to on some of that. But we have not got all of the answers so we are still pulling some of that together and we can talk about that. We are 

focusing on getting those risk assessments, getting what monitoring equipment needs to be put in and that is the short-term stuff which will then help build on where we are to go forward. Then you've got the long-term things, which is what you've mentioned about insurance, about how that affects your property prices, getting some advice on that from a legal perspective, getting a legal perspective following the investigation which is a lot longer away.

(Craig) Anna Robbani is here today, so she can go through individually with anybody that has got any housing issues.

Question: Will Paul Swales house be covered, we can still see into his bedroom and it is very disturbing?

Answer: (Police) I've spoken to the senior investigating officer just prior to this meeting and they have been working on this because there's a lot of safety issues and they want to do that so they can go through the room where property can still be seen and then they'll recover that so it will not be visible. That should be taken place by Friday. 

Question: We must find out how much gas is down there. If a pocket could be vented off or burnt, then the gas would be gone and we could all return home safe and put this behind us and we wouldn't be worrying about insurance and the degradation of cement over 10 years and all that stuff. Why is this not being pushed faster? I would also like the Council to retain copies of all the meeting recordings so they can be sent to the coroner as part of the information gathering process.

Answer: (Laura) Regarding the notes of the meetings, they are available anyway, so that is not an issue. Is your alternative proposal to drill another borehole, see if there is gas there and if there is gas there, vent it off and flare it and you would like us to ask BGS for their view on that. Reading the room, I get the feeling that there are differences of view, but we can ask BGS whether that is an alternative solution. We have been advised that filling the bore hole has pushed the gas back to where it was originally and the issue is about knowing how is there and then what you do with it. At the moment our focus is on getting you back and that will include some short-term monitoring in homes.

Question: Is there any consideration being given as a priority for a moratorium on all ground heat pumps in Brickhill, Putnoe? No one knows how far as it goes, but it is pretty certain if you drilled a hole, the other side of Cleat Hill, you'd hit the gas.

Answer: (Laura) Fundamentally, the issues about how we identify the size of a pocket of gas or what that looks like, we need BGS in the room, they are the people that can provide us with some of the advice on that. They are not here, but they have given a commitment to attend the next meeting. 

(Craig) It is something that I think was raised at the first or second meeting and we statutorily cannot deal with and do that. There is no statute that will allow us to do that, I raised this before. It’s a permitted development, the association for heat source pumps, did say that this would be something that they would look at to make sure that their members are all compliant with the relevant regulations associated with the borehole regulations. If you are looking for gas or coal, it is regulated and permitted, if you're looking for water, it's permitted in terms of the EA, but when it comes down to the ground source heat pumps, it's not permitted in terms of any regulation. So that is just the state of play of where it is and it was something that was raised in the House of Commons by the MP Richard Fuller. 

Question: Wouldn't it be worthwhile publicising to the residents of Putnoe and Brickhill that if they are considering any form of heat pump involving drilling a hole, lay off it for the short for the moment because it's so uncertain?

Answer: (Craig) I can take a legal opinion on regards to getting that message out there as you put it, but I have got a feeling that it's not going to stop anything from actually happening.

I quite agree. It would only be advisory, but at least the advice would have been given. We will take that away as an action and we will get a legal opinion on that from the Council's perspective.

Question:  When we went to our house today, why did the police officer need to video record us? And how this is personal data stored.

Answer: (Police) So they are just on their body worn camera so that we can just record that we've spoken to people and then we just record it on our commander control system. They will do this procedure for everyone who comes to the cordon, and officers should just advise that they are doing recording. I will feed that back to the cordon officers to ensure that this process is being followed correctly. 

The data is stored on a hard drive, and it can’t be watched by ‘just anyone’. I will have to get back to you on how long the data is stored. 

Question: (Directed to Fire Service) How much gas do you think is down there?

Answer: (Fire) I don't know, if we knew this would be over. It is an unknown amount of gas in an unknown place coming out at an unknown rate, that is as clear as we can be until we can get some monitoring devices in place. We're not going to be able to say that you're safe to go back. 

The borehole leaked for a while and whilst it leaked or dented, there was a blockage, that blockage meant that gas went into the strata, so even though we've plugged it right now, there is potentially gas in the ground that could come out. Even if we drilled another hole tomorrow and burnt it all off, that doesn't say that the gas that's gone into the ground is not going to disappear either.

Question: My biggest concern is about the level of expertise that the oil and gas experts have been able to bring to the table, and whether it is that is enough to really have like flushed everything out. There's no reassurance for me I still feel in limbo.

Answer: (Sarah) Whilst I might be giving these updates, it is not my risk assessment process. It's not a template I've created, so the key criteria in this process in terms of the actual document we're using, the information that's being put into it is coming from those experts, it is the coal authority and it is mines rescue service, those organisations that are absolutely competent operating with natural gas and that's why we use them. 

There was a huge amount of discussion around the risk assessment template, before we started for exactly this reason, but we wanted to get the template right from the beginning. I would say to reassure you, it is not one single person or one single organisation, and there are on any given day, 5, 6, 7 organisations working side by side looking at these. Each organisation has a really specific role to play in terms of their expertise. 

So the fact that we're using a building control officer from the local authority is because he has the correct competency, but he doesn't make a judgement on the gas levels because that sits with another organisation. I know it's really difficult because you can't see them we're talking about a product that you haven't had yet. We hope that once you look at your risk assessment from the perspective of your home, you'll feel more reassured about what we're doing. 

Question: In relation to the East West Rail and the Geological Survey. What's the Council's views? Can you ask them to stop if they are going to start drilling exploratory bore holes?

Answer: (Tom Wootton) We've been in meetings all day about East West Rail and they have a consultation on Saturday at the old high school in Bedford.

It was the most unwelcome news I've ever had that every two or three hundred metres along, the whole of North Bedfordshire, they want to dig a borehole. 

Laura Church has written to the chief of East West Rail to speak with them about the current situation. 

They are starting their non-statutory consultation that will end in February, but then they have got about half a year of doing the sums and they are going to start going to start proper consultations a year after that. They hope to be on site building by 2030 and probably completing by 2035. 

We have a whole load of public consultation to go, and with the questions being raised by our MPs I think East West Rail will have to come to a different conclusion than wanting to dig boreholes every two 300 yards up their line. 

(Laura) I have written to the chief executive saying that we would ask them not to do any boreholes in the area until I have had confirmation from British Geological Survey that is an acceptable thing to do and that they have an understanding of the geophysics of this area. I am waiting for the confirmation back from BGS around that, I am not aware that East West Rail have started any boreholes but we have asked, we have asked them not to do it at the moment.

And also so that we are also clear on their method statement they've asked for a meeting that we haven't accepted a meeting around that at the moment until I've got some more information back from BGS.

Question: There was mention of an independent review and Paul Bradley commented that we could look at that, will this happen?

Answer: (Laura) We will need to follow this up.

Question: The monitors will give us an early detection rate, how will this stop future explosions? The investigations Paul Bradley said that showed it was the gas that caused the explosion, but something ignited it. Did you find out what was the cause of the ignition?

Answer: (Fire) It isn't conclusive at the moment as to what the ignition source was. Should further evidence be required by the CPS, then we may need to do some further forensic analysis, but at the moment we just we don't know the exact ignition source.

The monitoring devices will be set at such a limit that it's nowhere near the explosive range, so when the alarm goes off, it's far, far below any explosive range. As you see in fresh air now if you open doors and windows, you know it won't get to the rate that it's going to need for an explosive, and you'll be more than safe to leave that premise. This will be part of the process and procedures that we'll be talking about in terms of what actions to take in the event of an alarm going off, but be rest assured, the level it goes off at is far below anything where it's going to be dangerous for you.

(Sarah) I know that when residents looked at some of the monitors last week, there was a question that was raised around what the level could be set at and whether it could be set lower than that. I think there is a standard level that the monitors would activate at as Jim suggested would be significantly lower than anything that would be in that explosive range, but these monitors can be set to even lower than that if people wanted, but we'd have to just think about the inconvenience of alarms activating more frequently. In terms of what would happen when the alarm activates, there's a number of things in that protocol which then allow us to ensure people's safety. The alarm could activate whilst your house was empty so we need to think about that in terms of how you would be contacted away from the home to notify you that if we can't get in contact with you, that emergency services would be required to attend your home. If the alarm activates while you're in the house, how we could communicate with homeowners through the device? Or if that's not successful, calling up, emergency contact numbers and then also that emergency response. So that's the whole process that we're building is all those reassurances so that if an alarm activates all of those suitable protocols that in place that have been considered and they've been communicated to you so you understand exactly what would happen in that situation and you have got that confidence. 

Question: You talked earlier about difference in the monitors between families and what's right for them what do you mean by that? Do you mean different settings or different monitors or do you mean multiple monitors?

Answer: (Sarah) Some of the examples that people have raised in previous meetings as concerns about the fact that they may have children who are in the house by themselves for periods of time or older relatives that are in the home for periods of time. So some of them will be very specific, but others will be, as you've suggested, it could be down to the size of the property or the design of the property. When we were talking about individually the level of monitoring has got to be suitable for the home and the people that live in the home, but we're not making a decision without you and we're not making the decision until we understand what each house needs. 

Question: Given the uniqueness of what we're dealing with and it's never happened in the UK before, it has in other countries, so why are we not pulling on all the resources to put their heads together? I don't feel like actually got the people all together that we need.

Answer: (Laura) I think we should when we're talking about where we are, let you know all of the advice that we're getting from lots of different places and lots of different experience so that you can, what we are trying to do. We are calling on experts, we are looking at other countries where things have happened that are that similar. We are looking at that expertise, but I think we need to communicate that better to you.

Comment: I think somewhere some either during the meeting or on the messages we get, it should be bullet pointed where you're at, what you're doing, what you've done, how many you've done.

Reply: (Laura) That's really helpful feedback, we are conscious that we met with you two weeks ago and took your advice and changed messaging so that we won't just repeating the same things over and over again. 

Question: Given the fact that we haven't seen the risk assessment templates and we're relying on you to look at these risk assessment templates, calculate how many monitors we need. Have you pre-ordered enough monitors for all properties or are you waiting on the risk assessments first?

Answer: (Laura) To get the process going, we've ordered 90 and these are the ones that are coming from Canada. But we have access to other sources and MRSL also make use of this device so we have access to some more as well.

Question: With the festive season coming, if we move back into our homes and we get a bit merry and we need to get a taxi home from Bedford, is the taxi going to be able to come back to our homes? 

Answer: (Police) If we're talking about going through the cordon, if it's still in place, then yes, they would need to sign or be read the Advice Note. But if the monitoring is in place and you are home, will the cordon still be in place? I think that's what we have to review.

Question: If my monitor goes off and it detects gas, what happens to my neighbours?

Answer: (Sarah) I would want to get absolute clarification and I can come back to you, but based on the demonstrations and the conversations we had, I think for yourselves, each household would be treated as a separate unit. You might have more than one alarm in your property and you would be notified of any activations of any of those alarms directly. Emergency responders would be notified as soon as your alarm activates, so it doesn't sit entirely with yourself because you might not be at home and you might not be near to your property when that happens. 

Are you suggesting that you feel that you would want to have that oversight of other people's alarms or not? Because it's your home and the data within it would be yours. There are scenarios that we could explore about people being able to see levels in other people's houses, but I'd need to ask that question because clearly it's quite a complicated thing that would need to be created. 

My understanding with conversations with Rockall Safety is that there are a number of different ways that the monitoring can happen. I absolutely know that individual households will be able to see the levels on their monitors remotely when they're not in their homes. So you will have the ability to log on to a portal or an app at any point in time that will tell you. 

In terms of the Local Resilience Forum, we will have some oversight on those readings across all of the alarms but whether we're considering that yourselves are collective, would be able to see that is something that I would need to explore. I don't think it's something that prohibits us moving forward because the portal and the protocol are things that could be developed with time, I just need to understand what the capabilities are and it might be that initially homeowners just want to see their own data but that might change.

Question:  I would like some more clarity on whether once those risk assessments are completed and residents understand the risk within their property, does that mean that the risk then sits with them when they go back to their property? Will we need to sign these assessments?

Answer: (Laura) The risk assessments are helping us to help you get back to your property and understanding what we have seen from the construction of the property ,where pipework goes in, whether it has been affected by gas in soil close by or any gas in properties and that's what we're taking account of. We are not expecting residents to sign them.

Question: If the houses aren't deemed safe after a risk assessment, what are the next steps? Will there ever be a time where we look at compulsory purchase orders?

Answer: (Laura) I think that we need to do everything that we're looking at now around the risk assessments and it is too early to start thinking about that at the moment. Our focus as we've talked about is a getting people to be able to safely return to their homes. So that will be in the next steps discussions. Once we've done the risk assessments and we've also looked at all of the individual properties.

Question: Can you give an example in any other situation where a homeowner is given a risk assessment?

Answer: (Craig) This is an advisory, no, I can't give you any examples of that. This is a risk assessment; it is giving you the relevant information to give you the advice in terms of having all the relevant expertise that we've got to hand to determine the risks posed at your property at this point in time. It's very different to requiring somebody to do a risk assessment, which is what we would do from a legal perspective. What this is giving residents that information to enable you to understand the risks posed. It's not saying you are responsible for it. It's saying this is the information that is available, this isn't forcing it upon you. It's about giving you that advice to help support you in terms of understanding those risks and what control measures are being put in place. What they have done at the borehole is a control measure and what is being done with the monitoring is going to be a control measure.

Question: My concern is around the implications for insurance and possibly mortgage associations because nothing like it has ever existed before and there might be a whole heap of unintended consequences that can result of providing that document that says that there is a risk associated with that property. Has the panel considered this? You could just do all this work without a live document there, I understand the rush to get people back to their homes.

Answer: (Craig) Jim has said we will take this away in relation to the insurance.

I think people would probably disagree that we've rushed anything and they'll be saying that the opposite. The clarity around this is to make sure it's done thoroughly and properly to be able to give the right advice. It is a good point about the insurance company that we need to be checked and looked at.

Meeting held at St Marks Community Church.

• Assistant Chief Fire Officer Jim Davies – Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service
• Chief Inspector Katherine Rivers – Bedfordshire Police 
• Mayor Tom Wootton – Bedford Borough Council 
• Chief Executive Laura Church – Bedford Borough Council 

Laura Church started the meeting and gave apologies for Councillor Nicola Gribble and for MP Richard Fuller, as he had an adjournment in Parliament.

Summary from local resident who listened to this broadcast on the parliament channel:

He covered every question that we've asked during the residents’ meetings, and was able to summarise even some of the things where perhaps we might have different shades of opinion, he managed to encapsulate the whole lot. He gave thanks to St Marks Church, Bedford Borough Council and to the emergency services. He was very pertinent in terms of linking July to the October events, and articulating what needs to happen going forward in terms of bore hole drilling in the UK.
He also flagged insurance, house prices and we wanted to cheer when he finished.

The minister did welcome the official application from the Borough Council for additional funding, and I think the door is open for that. She did say that they've had conversations with insurers, but I don't know that they've been a lot more successful. She was saying similar things to the gentleman from the Association of British Insurers. They suggested that house prices may recover, but she did say she would take things away and look at them and they will continue their conversations.  

Updates from the Panel

HSE and BGS update – given by Laura Church

In terms of what's happened over the last few days there has been quite a significant change in the weather, two drops in barometric pressure, on the 15 November the pressure dropped from 1030 millibars to 1020 (10mbs) over a period of 24 hours. On 19 November, the pressure dropped from 1012 millibars to 997 million bars, which is 15 millibar bars over a period of 12 hours. There have been no changes in the level of gas readings across the site. So that was one of the things that we've talked to you about, the tests needed and that drop in pressure.

We have been in correspondence with the insurance industry and asked them about when residents are not in their homes and the 30 and 60 days. They have said back to me that is being dealt with on an individual insurance basis. If there are any particular examples where that hasn't worked then to feed that through and look at particular cases as, for example, we know that Ray raised he had done it and he was charged. If you have got particularly cases, please give them to us and we can follow through on that. I have got a report from the insurance industry which I will read through the legislation he has detailed and we will take the details from that and add it to the frequently asked questions on the website. 

We are continuing with the work that we're doing around Police presence on site and private security.

Cordon – Katherine River, Chief Inspector Bedfordshire Police

As of 10am tomorrow morning (22/11/2024) the cordon will remain in place but it is going to be such that people, if they choose to do so, can return to their homes. We know there a few of you that wish to do so but this will not be everyone. It has been put in a place by the multi-agency and there will be a waiver letter, which people will sign to say that they know the risks of going back home. As of 10am tomorrow this letter will be emailed out and you will be allowed back to your properties. 

The advice remains that we advise against you returning to your homes, but we appreciate your position that you are in, we will be strongly advising anyone who approaches the cordon not to go through, and ask them to sign the waiver. If they do so, then this would recorded by the officers at the cordon.

At the bottom of Cleat Hill where there have been concerns where residents have not been evacuated we are going to have the road sign there, it needs to be closed, but we will obviously move it back to where the footpath crosses by the pedestrian crossing so the footpath will still be closed but it will allow free access to those residents who have not be evacuated. 

In terms of anyone who goes up to the cordon, we will not be enforcing the powers and any legal action. If you go up to the cordon you will be asked to sign the letter and this will be recorded by the officer on their body camera and we will be retaining that letter and it will be signed and dated so we have a record of who's going through. If someone doesn’t wish to sign the waiver that will be recorded by the officers and recorded the same way on our control systems.

Risk assessments – Jim Davies, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Bedfordshire Fire & Rescue Service

Over the last couple of days in particular, we have been working to put together a methodology that looks at the risk to those that would be within the cordon and those in their homes in order for us to be able to look at the specific risk based on the type of person and property within the cordon.

We worked with our partners, such as HSE, BGS, British Mine Service, UKHSA, Fire & Rescue and building engineers from Bedford Borough Council, in order to have the right people with the relevant competencies and accreditations in order to make the best judgement on the risk that is being posed. 

The risk assessments will be premise specific and they will take into account the person who is living at the premises. We are looking at three broad areas and that means the way that we the building is constructed that will allow the gas to permeate within the building itself and build up, the measurement of gas within the soil externally to that premise (has gas has made it way to the exterior perimeter of the building) and any gas readings within the building. This gives us a really clear idea as to how to each particular premise has behaved based on the way the gas has behaved up to this point. Which I would stress is up to this point because as we all know it is predictable that it will continue to be unpredictable. We are in a good place now and we have got the relevant people undertaking the assessments that gives us really clear data about each premise and this will give us the ability to provide a very clear overview about the risk posed currently and secondary when we do have the monitoring equipment in place in the premise. It is good to understand how the building will behave based gas and on the construction, but it is only as good as the information we have and it is not to say that it will not change in the future and the only real way to safeguard against that if your premise is affected by its construction is with the gas monitoring equipment. This risk assessment will very much inform that type of monitoring equipment that will be required and it will be based on the needs of the individuals and the premise.

(Laura)

In order for us to do those assessments, we need to be able to access your property and for a member of our Building Control team to look at how it is constructed. If the Police have already had your keys or have your keys, it is more than likely we have completed the survey already and we have already assessed 17 properties in two days. We need to be able to access the rest of them so we will be calling residents to make the arrangements to get your keys so that we can have access to your property. 

We can only do these surveys in daylight, so we need to be able to have access during the day. We have made good progress over the last couple of days, and we'll be rolling that out over the rest of next week. We also need those surveys so that we can make sure that the monitoring devices that we are providing to you are absolutely right. Some residents have seen a demonstration of this device from Rockall Safety before Monday night’s resident meeting. It is a room device, so what we want to look at is the construction of the property to understand whether there might be monitors needed in void spaces.

Please note – when referring to the ‘waiver’ throughout the meeting, this refers to the Advice note. The Advice note informs residents of the risk that exists when entering the 100-metre cordon, and for you to give your informed consent for entering the cordon.

Question: Is the waiver mentioned for use when you want to go back for half an hour, 10 hours, overnight, weekend, or permanently? ?

Answer: (Police) At the moment the letters will be available at the cordon and each time someone goes to cross the cordon they will sign the waiver and we will see how that progresses going forwards. Whether you go in for 10 minutes or an hour there will be the waiver to sign but we will be happy to review this as we go along.

Question: Are the monitoring devices still scheduled to arrive by the 6th December?

Answer: (Laura) As far as we know, but we just want to check that that's absolutely that it is absolutely right for each property. 

Question: Is there a predicted date when the risk assessments will be completed?

Answer: (Laura) We are hoping to complete the risk assessments by Tuesday. 

Question: If we sign the waiver does that mean we can stay in our homes forever?

Answer: (Laura) Yes, that is correct. We will be issuing the waiver to all residents so you can have a look at it. Our advice remains that the risk assessments and monitoring devices should be in place before you return home, but this is your decision. 

Question received on live stream: Will signing a waiver to say residents are returning home at their own risk, could this invalidate their house insurance? 

Answer: (Laura) We will need to look into this and go back to the House Insurance industry for advice on this.

Question: Will you require access to the garage as well?

Answer: (Laura) Yes, we want to be able to check the garages, so the assessments will look at the structure of the building as well as where you might have gas pipes, water pipes, telephone lines etc.

Question: Just to clarify about the risk assessments you said should be done by Tuesday. Can you give some indication on when we might be informed to the results of that and whether those houses that have been done already, whether we would hear before or after Tuesday?

Answer: (Laura) The plan is to have done them all on Tuesday and we will just need to give ourselves just a bit of extra time just make sure they are all consistent and I will come back to you with a confirmed date for sharing these all with you.

Question: With the cordon, there was a subtle inference from the Chief Superintendent on Monday that the numbers are dropping at the cordon, what’s changed to say that this isn’t going to be dropped. What is the criteria for reducing the cordon back reporting back to a sensible area, in and around the borehole?

Answer: (Fire) It was the Police that said this, and it was a hard thought process and it is still our priority to reduce the cordon as far as possible. At the moment we have had two drops in pressure, despite having weather changes  -these are all good signs, but we want more stability in regards to timeframe to make sure that what we are seeing in the readings remain consistent. Once we can see that the readings remain consistent, we will be looking to reduce the cordon. 

Question: We have heard for a number of weeks that the numbers outside the cordon have been consistently low, so there doesn’t seem to be a scientific reason to keep the cordon in place. 

Answer: (Fire) the thing that makes all the difference is the conditions that the gases are currently in.

Question: If the testing has to go through all seasons does that happen the cordon will need to remain for a year?

Answer: (Fire) At the moment we do not know the timeframe. The focus at the moment is trying to establish the risks to the premises, and continuing  to monitor the gas. When there's more time, we can start considering and looking at the strata and the way that it is behaving. We will then be able to get that better judgement for that information.  We are not sure about how the gas will continue to react, so we will undertake the risk assessments based on the premise and the person. The monitoring is there to act as an early warning system to those living in the premise. We will continue to the measurement and sampling in air and in the ground, and if we do see any fluctuations that is when the risk assessment will change. Currently, we are just too early to be able to say that we understand how the ground is going to continue to behave as the conditions change. The risk is to residents in premises as when gas reaches the ground outside it dilutes itself almost to nothing so the cordon is not necessarily high risk for that area. Where the risk remains within that area is if there is a premise or a place where that gas can accumulate and build up over time and reach that explosive rate. 

Question: How confident are you that the mitigations you are putting in place from the risk assessment is suitable for people moving back in?

Answer: (Fire) We are confident once we know that the control measure or monitoring has been installed and been tested to say the readings are what they need to be. We are certainly confident enough to say there is a control measure for those of you who want to return home. With the level of risk, we have been very clear, we cannot reduce it to nothing, whilst we do not understand the way that the gas will continue to behave. 

Question: The levels shared on previous handouts, are they averages or done at a set time of the day?

Answer: (Fire) It is an average over time.

Question: If we move back, can we have deliveries of food or parcels, or will they be refused entry?

Answer: (Police) As it stands when anyone approaches the cordon, the first things we will say is that we advise strongly that people don't cross the cordon, but if they signed, they can cross the cordon.

Question: Can I confirm that this is a liability waiver you are asking you to sign? We have been allowed to pop in previously for 10 minutes to collect items without signing a waiver.

Answer: (Laura) The difference between what we've been doing now, which is where we've been doing that assessment, going with you and you just want to go and collect something, we will have to take away. It isn't really to cover quickly popping in, but we're just trying to get that process in place.

Question: If there's a document being introduced to transfer risk, am I going to get a document that's the opposite of that waiver from the powers that be that says we are guaranteeing that this area and your home is safe to inhabit because I am hearing a lot of uncertainty?
Answer: (Laura) There are a few things that you have been asking us over the past few weeks that we still are working out, what we can do and what it would look like. One of those is that certification piece that says that we are saying to you that it's safe. Also, you have been saying how that you can pass that information onto other people. We still don't have all of the answers on because we are going to different organisations to try and understand and get that. You asked us to look at how the site of the borehole, the development there and how we deal with that, as well as  how that might be registered. We are still following up on that.

The other area is around what this means for property values. I don't have all of the answers to those, but they are some of the things that we are still working out and we know that for you collectively that they are really important issues. But I can't ask that at the moment what we're trying to do with the risk assessment of properties and monitoring is mitigate some of that.

Question: I've noticed before the police and the gas checks were going around the back of the house but over the last few days, they have stopped doing that, only the front, why has that changed?

Answer: (Laura) I will have to check and come back to you regarding what gas checks are happening on site.

(Police) They should be and I will take that back to investigate.

Question: When we came back yesterday, we were allowed in but they didn't do the check beforehand which they had done previously at 9 Glenrose. Another resident said they had a similar experience of being allowed to drive up their road to the property before being stopped by the police.

Answer: (Laura) The Police team are having a briefing by Katherine tomorrow morning and to make sure it is clear that the process this. I will also feedback back to our officers who are on site to make sure that we are doing the processes that we set to you.

Question: What happens if we return and sign the waiver but then change our mind?

Answer: (Laura) We need to have those as individual discussions. 

Question: Could we have two types of signing where one is residents to sign to say they are happy to go back and stay and those who want to go back for 10 minutes?

Answer: (Laura) This is helpful feedback for us tonight and we will take that away from this meeting.

Question: I was in the house at the time of the explosion and felt a tremor, I don’t want to go back as I have so much fear. I would like a surveyor to survey my house, would that be possible?

Answer: (Laura) We can have an individual discussion about how you are feeling and what issues there might be. If you think your house may have been structurally impacted, we need to have that separate discussion.

Question: What is the purpose of this waiver? - you know who we are and where we live, you are giving us access through the cordon to our properties, why do I need to sign a waiver to go to my own house?

Answer: (Laura) Because we're not releasing the cordon, the cordon is there because our purpose is around your safety. Until we've done all of the work that Jim has been describing, the cordon is staying in place. We are recognising from the discussion that we've had over the last 10 days that different people are feeling differently about things, so we are finding a way where you can if you want to go back but understanding that we don't have all of the answers.

Question: When the risk assessments are done, and the monitoring is in place will we still have the cordon and be asked to sign the waiver?

Answer: (Laura) When the situation changes and when we are in a position where there's not a cordon you will be able to know about your business in the normal way. It's just we haven't been able to lift the cordon.

(Fire) What this document is, is an information document to give you an understanding of what you are being presented with in terms of hazards and risks going into that area. That area, at the moment, as we know is unpredictable and we are not able to clarify the movement of gas. This document just gives you the ability to be informed to go back to your homes with a knowledge of the potential hazards and risks posed by these.

(Claire) If we take this cordon off that is when we have done all of the assessments about what the risk is, and the mitigation and the cordon doesn't need to be in place. If the cordon isn't there, you don't need to sign whatever we are going to call this statement because that means that we don't think that that cordon protection is needed. We can't give you today a date when the cordon might be lifted, but we are always reviewing it based on the information that we've got. 

Question: Can you explain what the risk assessments look like?

Answer: We will need to come back to you regarding this.

Question: When the cordon is lifted does that reopen the road to the normal volume of traffic or will it be restricted to just residents? 

Answer: (Laura) If the cordon goes completely at the top and bottom of the Cleat Hill, that road becomes open again. We will be reviewing the cordon and including Cleat Hill when we have got all of the information. So, the information that we know what's happening when the gas, the key risk is in the properties.

Question: Are there any particular styles of home that you are more concerned about? 

Answer: (Laura) Every property needs checking as we are aware of how they are constructed, we are looking at whether they're on concrete plinths, where the pipes are going in, we need to understand each individual property.

Question: I do not understand where this gas is going to keep coming from if the borehole is sealed?

Answer: (Laura) We will need to raise this question again when HSE or BGS are in attendance.

Question: The advice is still to not return back to our homes; I am happy to wait until we are told it is safe will the Council inform us when it is safe?

Answer: (Claire) This is being done as the Local Resilience Forum and this is what we are working towards, when we will be able to say that we have minimised the risk and you've got mitigation in place around the monitors and that's what we are working to. We can't give you a date of when that will be.

Comment: I have actually got photographs and the original drawings for the properties, the mock Tudor style that I took in 1994 during construction at my house if that is helpful.  I'm pretty sure that you've got probably got some floors with sub foot voids and air bricks for ventilation. 

Reply: (Laura) Thank you- that would be helpful.

Question: Can you explain the difference between the cordon and the red 100 metre zone?

Answer: (Fire) The blue tape cordon is in a convenient place at the moment and from tomorrow it will reduce down to the 100-metre zone. The 100-metre zone is where we have identified where the gas has moved to over the period of time from just after the explosion to a few days later when we had got monitoring on site. We know there is potential for gas to travel to those extremities. As a result of that, those premises affected within that zone are those that we are looking at. If your premises are out of the 100-metre zone you are not affected in regard to the cordon, if you have got alternative means to access it. If that changes and if the gas continues to travel or not, it will continue to be revised and reconsidered.

We just don’t how much gas went into the ground, what's within that ground between that 100-metre mark and the surface and could it be held somewhere in that strata under another pocket of limestone, heavy clay etc. It is just a case of time whist we work that out. The risk of gas in air is really minimal, at the moment we cannot say that we're not going to see pockets of gas continue to pop up. The likelihood is that will reduce, the 100 metres is the risk area but the high-risk areas is where it could build up.

Comment: There are two points of opinion, so I think they should be dealt with as individual cases as some people want to speak to separately. Not everybody should be put into one bag. I think most people just want to go home to their own homes when you say that it is safe.

Reply: (Laura) That's one of the things that I want to understand, how different people are feeling and we did the phone calls last week to get a sense of how different people are feeling so that we can think about what works for different people. So that's what we are trying to do.

Comment: One of the things the MP said was that none of the onus should be put back on the residents.

Reply: (Laura) If you want to go back there are still risks involved in that. We are trying to respond that we understand that there are different groups and different individuals, some of you are happy with what we've already been doing, and others have indicated that you would like more flexibility to be able to go to return back to your properties. We have not been able to sort out all issues around the monitoring and some of the other issues you want for confidence.  That is what we are suggesting as a way forward. 

We will review this with the team tomorrow morning and confirm what the arrangements are so hopefully there will be no change for those of you who just want to pop in. 

Comment: Could you issue anybody who wants to go back with a letter and say this is the current situation, if you all want to go into your property and remain in your property sign this to say you accept this is approved position? By doing that you will not remove anybody's insurance.

Reply: (Laura) We had a discussion this afternoon about whether waiver was the right word and it is that type of letter of assessment of risk that you just described. 

(Fire) It is an advice document and the signature is just about your understanding of that advice, if you go into that area, you will have the potential to come into contact with these hazards that pose these risks.

Question: Is the risk central to the borehole because we have said the borehole is sealed?

Answer: (Fire) The 100-metre cordon has been set from day 1 and as we get more intelligence from the data and the average readings, we have seen over different periods of time and in different places higher and lower readings. When you get your individual risk assessments you will see the historic readings both in premise and in ground close it to, how far you are away from the borehole which all goes together to make a clear picture of how gas is reacting in proximity to the premise. It will also detail the type of construction and how easily that gas might be able to enter the premises and this gives us clear idea if there is a high risk of entering or a permeable place and as a result of that whether you are at a higher risk. 

Question: Isn’t it common law that if there is an explosion you usually have a 400metre circumference around it? 

Answer: (Fire) Yes, it depends on what has exploded and the size of the thing that has exploded. 

Summary by Laura Church

We have come together tonight to talk about a particular issue with the cordon we will take away that there are different messages we need to provide, you need to see the draft statement of risk and also this difference if you are just popping in and keeping this the same as we have been doing versus those that are likely to go back to your premises. Also, that challenge of those who say they want to go back but may change your mind when you do return.

There's some, things around the future questions that I think Richard has also begun to ask and around some of those other challenges that we talked about around certification and property values and what we do about the site where the borehole is. Thank you again for coming along tonight and I think it's really been a very helpful discussion for us. We need BGS and HSE when we're talking about gas and the strata so that we can talk about that in a bit more detail. I have also picked up that there's a piece about talking about the cordon and what happens when that changes. 

Panel and meeting introduction

Council Chamber, Bedford Borough Hall

Panel:

• Bedford Borough Council, Director of Environment - Craig Austin
• Health and Safety Executive, Head of Operations – Paul Bradley (Virtually)
• Bedfordshire Police, Detective Chief Superintendent Zara Brown
• Bedford Fire and Rescue Service, Assistant Chief Fire Officer – Jim Davies
• Rockall Safety – Wayne Walton

Slides used at the meeting (PDF).

Graph showing borehole pressure, methane and temperature 2-18 November (PDF).

Mayor Tom Wootton welcomed residents to the meeting. Craig Austin set out the structure of the meeting before asking the panel to provide an overview of the current situation, and address the concerns that the Council has received on behalf of the LRF. 

Updates from the panel

Police

We have dedicated resource from CPS to this enquiry and have engaged with the Crown Prosecution Service to sought early investigative advice. There are a number of people still to get statements from. 

The investigation team are shielding the property as best as possible on site. There is still activity at the site, there is ground penetrating radar required and a manual search being conducted by Pulsar search experts, who are people that go through the site with a fine-tooth comb as and when it is appropriate to do so. 

We understand the severity of this, two people have lost their lives and this is a huge investigation which will take some time to build up the case. At this stage we continue to engage with CPS, continue to monitor the inquiry and we will leave no stone unturned in this investigation.

Fire

From a fire investigation point of view, the investigation is ongoing, and we can conclude that the initial investigation would suggest it is a natural gas that has caused the explosion. We are still having to do some scientific analysis regarding the ignition source itself. These are initial findings, but it is not to say the forensic review may bring other information to light. 

As the criminal investigation continues, we will support the police with any fire forensic aspects, and this will be led by the CPS and any evidence they feel that they want further.

Cordon

(Fire) One of our priorities is around reducing the cordon as quick as we possibly can, safety of the public is paramount, so we are waiting for a significant atmospheric pressure drop to see if this causes the gas to react in a different way and impact the readings. We did see that pressure drop over the weekend and there were elevated readings as a result of that around the borehole but in the ground itself it remained relatively static. We are continuing to monitor that over the next day or two based on the weather reports, both in the air and ground. We will look, through the risk assessment process, to identify those premised which are more likely or less likely to need or have a level of monitoring.

(Police) The cordon itself is a priority for the SCG (Strategic control group) and we understand everyone’s frustrations and we have spoken to a resident this evening who has had a bad experience with police and fire officers at the scene which is not acceptable. We will be looking into this; our intention is to work through what the cordon looks like, and our priority is public safety. Whether we reduce or lift the cordon is dependent on subject matter experts providing some information to the risk assessments. We are reliant on the geologists, scientists and the people that form part of the technical cell and advise us through the SCG on what that will look like. As a co-ordinating group we must be totally satisfied that safety is prioritised and once we are satisfied as an agency, we have to come to a decision on what that looks like, the next 24 hours will be important in terms of assessing what the cordon will look like. 

Bedford Borough Council

We have been asked to look at monitoring that would be suitable in residential settings, give reassurance to individual homeowners, and us as a partnership.  We want monitoring to not just allow you to get back into your home, but to allow you to live in your homes and feel safe.  
Rockall Safety are experts in gas monitoring and work in gas monitoring in confined spaces and we are essentially looking at a solution that allows individual residents to have reassurance through an audible alarm in their property, which also gives you remote access to see what the levels of the alarm. Also having this linked to 24/7 monitoring arrangement so residents can have that reassurance if the alarm does go off and that it is not just up to them. Rockall Safety has showed some residents earlier today what this looks like and how that interaction with the call centre would happen. We are looking how as an LRF we can monitor the readings across the equipment across the entirety of the properties so we can see what is happening to understand what long-term monitoring would look like and also how we would respond as a collective. 

The next step is to look at individual risk assessments for homes, as we want to ensure that what we are offering is fit for purpose for all the types of residences and styles of properties. Over the next few days there will be a need for us to contact you individually to see how we can make those more detailed assessments.

HSE

Referring to page 4 of the handout, the gas and safety chart, the orange/red lines is the barometric pressure (from the end of October to current time) and it is forecast to drop again up until tomorrow. What that is doing, the temperature has dropped severity and the bottom line is the level of the methane in and around the ground at the borehole site. You can see that there is an increase in methane and the barometric drop in temperature and up to the point where it has stabilised. The pressure has dropped quite low but the methane has remained quite constant and at 10am this morning we can see the methane in and around the borehole has dropped down significantly. They correlate to no other increases in the ground and air monitoring elsewhere on site. The only place we are seeing any methane is in and around the borehole which backs up the science and technical advice we have been receiving. The gas is doing what we expect it to do and it is very low levels and very low pressure. 

BGS are now taking into account the barometric pressure drops and seeing what the readings in the soil and the air, there is very little change. The map on page 6 shows the readings on the 29th October which we discussed at the last meeting and next map shows the air readings as of the 15 November. BGS have been doing more readings over the weekend and today and it shows there are very low levels with no changes whatsoever with the barometric pressure drops. Similarly with the gas in the ground, very little changes, if any. BGS will continue to monitor around the barometric changes.

Feedback and Residents Association

All the questions that have been asked, that are applicable to all residents will be available to through the URL link that has been sent to residents via text. Please note these are updated regularly. A lot of the feedback was around when you return, how comfortable you feel about returning and what looks like for everyone. There is a lot of difference in opinion around this and this feedback gives us help on how we can assist. There was clear feedback around having less text messaging unless it is a message that you have not had before, please feedback as we have started to reduce the number of text messages, if you feel this has dropped down too significantly. Also around making sure readings are shared more regularly not just at the Monday evening resident meeting. We will be updating the questions and answers tomorrow, please feel free to send any questions to proffice@bedford.gov.uk or communities@bedford.gov.uk

There is some interest in around setting up a resident association, this would be separate to the Council but we would be happy to assist you in setting up. All you need is three people and to elect a chair, treasurer and secretary and then you can adopt a constitution (templates available via CVS Bedfordshire) and set some house rules around how you operate. The communities’ team are happy to help support with this.

Local Resilience Forum action plan

Craig Austin talked through the action plan (included in the slides used at the meeting (PDF) and asked residents if they feel anything is missing to please let us know.

Questions raised

Question: What are the confidence levels in terms of getting those risk assessments completed by the 22 November?

Answer: (Craig) This is the aim and if we find we are unable to meet this deadline we will communicate this with residents via text message.

Question: Is there an assumption that the monitoring that is currently in place will continue until we have the in-house monitoring system is installed? And is this acceptable to Fire & Rescue in terms of the risk assessment? 

Answer: (Craig) As far as I am aware, and it will continue afterwards. 
(Fire) To be clear, this is not our risk assessment, the risk assessments are created by the Local Resilience Forum and have a number of different criteria. 

Question:  The in-house monitoring will likely take time, and it is noted in the action plan as the 6 December and I hope there is an alternative for us to return to our propertied before that solution is live.

Answer: The risk assessments will help us to inform the level of monitoring required for each property, and we are getting things ordered as soon as possible so we can move forwards as quick as possible.

Question: Mr Swales house, will it be covered more than it is currently? The scene is quite disturbing. 

Answer: (Fire) There is discussion today about fencing going up around the property and overhead covering and this is all in motion and we have talked about having a no-fly zone which was an action and this might not be needed once it is in place.

Question: Does the casing on the borehole improve the plug and why was not mentioned previously?

Answer: (HSE) The casing doesn’t improve, it is just a hollow cap that allows gas monitoring to take place, the plug is the cement within the borehole itself. 

Question: How does adverse weather conditions affect the plug at the bottom of the borehole?

Answer: (HSE) It doesn’t particularly affect the plug at the bottom of the hole, it is nearer the top with the changes in temperature and pressures. We are looking at the changes nearer the surface level to see what is happening to the methane that is in the ground, in and around that borehole.  

Question: How much gas is down there and would it have been better to bleed the gas or use it commercially?

Answer: (HSE) I doubt it would have initially fled it may have done subsequently but it has to be of good quality for it to bleed continuously, it is not a straightforward thing to do. In the first circumstance it was vented to dilute it. 

Question: Back in July, why were builders employed and not gas experts?

Answer: (HSE) I cannot answer this question at the moment as it touches within the realms of the investigation. In these circumstances for a geothermic well, a borehole, no matter whether they are oil or gas contractors or geothermal contractors they are working to guidance and standards within their industry and that is what we are benchmarking against. 

Question: What is the plan if the numbers start rising? And the longer-term solution going forwards?

Answer: (Craig) We have learned a lot from this incident and we will respond in a very different way if this was to happen again. We will be making sure we are holding these groups more frequently and doing everything that is necessary.

(HSE) I am reasonably confident that this borehole is sealed down to a point and the gas coming out is just from that top level. If something did start to go wrong, there will be extended monitoring, we have talked about two variations of barometric pressure to give us more confidence, but seasonal confidence through monitoring. If monitors within properties did start going off, we would look at what those levels were and do more investigation work around the borehole itself and if needed specialist resources would be brought in to deal with any situation that is needed. 

Question: At the last meeting you said the borehole had been logged. What logging services were performed?

Answer: (HSE) The original borehole company was Nichol’s boreholes and they provided some rudimentary logging of depths and the kind of strata that was encountered at those depths, and then the subsequent borehole drilling company have done something similar as well. They've logged down the borehole and that helps BGS and others form opinions as to what the source is and what are the circumstances. For example, I did describe the different types of gas, there's the biogenic that's formed by biogenesis, which is bacterial decay and then there's thermogenic which is caused by heat and pressure as we get in the North Sea. So, all of that kind of information including the logs is utilised to try and help people understand exactly what's happened and where it's come from.

Question: Did the logging services fall under the category of direction and inclination or formation evaluation and production login?

Answer: (HSE) It's not inclination or deviation because typically geothermal boreholes are vertical, so they're just looking at true perpendicular drilling and then logging for the different types of strata just so that they know where they are as a reference point. They are duty bound to keep that kind of information as it's useful for Environment Agency and for BGS and for ourselves in the future because it builds up the picture of the geological aspects and we don't get those that many opportunities to find. When they got to the depth of the borehole encountered the harder limestone and it was at that point where they struck the gas and that is all recorded in their logs.

Question:  What was the rate of the gas flow before the borehole was plugged?

Answer: (HSE) I can't give you an actual flow rate in terms of quantity that was coming out, but it varied between two bar and four bar of pressure. So, it was coming out at quite high pressure, between two times atmospheric and four times atmospheric pressure which is quite a high gas flow rate. We do have that information, Caden worked it out for us but we could get you an approximation of what was coming out at the worst case.

Question: If the risk assessments to be completed by the 22nd, and they show there is no risk, will we be allowed back or will we need to wait until the monitoring is in place?

Answer: (Police) This was a topic of discussion today at the SCG (Strategic Core Group) and we need the experts to ratify some of the bits around the risk assessment, which is what we're waiting on for the cordon itself and to allow you to go back is a 24-hour priority for us now as we start to work through those time frames. We do occasionally encounter some difficulties where those experts don't always appear where we need them to appear at.

We hope to be in a better position to update tomorrow. We will do a risk-based approach to what we are currently dealing with and therefore that risk assessment with those subject matter experts will enable us to make that. 

(Fire) What we will be able to tell you as a result of these risk assessments is the level of risk

What you what you believe and how you feel about that risk, is going to be very, very individual. So, all we can do is identify the risk based on science, explain and communicate that risk, put in the relevant control measures to try and mitigate that risk to the lowest possible and then throughout that timeline, I think we're going to probably have a range of people that are going to accept higher risk and lower risk. The risk assessment is just a piece of work that it gives us the ability as a Local Resilience Forum to communicate to you as the residents that level of risk that is currently at the level that it's at.

Question: Is there going to be a limit of how many people can visit the house because my son's getting married in August and we were going to have functions at the house?

Answer: (Fire) I've not seen that as a control measure that the scientists have spoken about so far. I wouldn't see a correlation between number of people and the levels of gas. 

Question:  You mentioned that the risk assessments were to understand which properties will need enhanced monitoring. Does that mean that not all properties will need the monitors?

Answer: (Craig) It is too early to tell, but possibly.

Question: Can you tell us a bit about the lifespan of the plug?

Answer: (HSE) I usually answer this kind of question with the reference to the colosseum, it has been there for millennia and our oil and gas wells that are plugged in the North Sea are plugged in the same way as this borehole that has been done using the same concrete cement product. They do over a long period of time deteriorate, but typically they don't leak and even some of the wells in the North Sea that have been done since the 70s are showing only really minute leakage. There have been no issues with them, so I can't give you a definitive life of cement because it changes it in accordance with the conditions that it's in, but I don't foresee there being any problems with the life of the cement for a very, very long time. We would be talking timescales of decades to hundreds of years as that is the anticipated lifespan of cement.

Question/Comment: Around the action plan, I would like the following to be included is the issue about insurance, people being quoted high premiums still have some uncertainty about what happens in the future. So, I think that needs to stay on the list. The other thing that I think is missing and is complex because it is around what I call the success criteria for returning home. 
There'll be a minimum level, but there might also be a discretionary level, but I am still unclear in my own head at the moment what the minimum standard is. I know that's evolving picture. 

In terms of residents groups, it was a bit underwhelming response and I can understand why as it sounded very governancy and it's about assembling ourselves in such a way that we use the might of the Mayor, the Council, our MP, ourselves and the other agencies to lobby. 

My accommodation booking ends on the 8th December and I feel with Christmas coming up, we need someone to confirm whether we need to extend by a week or two or three so we have got that clarity, because the absolute worst outcome for a lot of people here will be to be booted out of whatever accommodation are in right now for a week or so before Christmas.

Answer: (Craig) You are right about the governance, but residents’ groups do serve a purpose and to a certain degree it gives residents voice a bit more weight and power. I will ask Claire to go away and think about it and how we best deliver that for what your needs are and what you want. A resident group was an idea that some people have actually raised with us but I do think there's variations on the theme that we could do. The mayor and the other politicians and our MP are all people that can help influence those things.
Moving forward I will make sure something goes in there for house prices and insurance and give that some thought and it will go on our to do list as it were because we have got to focus on trying to get you into your properties. But we will cover it as an area and try to get more of a better response from the insurance people that we got in and maybe some individual insurers that residents are currently using. In terms of impact on house prices and so on, we would need to look for legal advice and will take those forward and try to develop those going forward.

Question: A point was raised at a previous meeting about poor telephone/ Wi-Fi signal, would this have any effect on the monitoring?

Answer: (Rockall Safety) There's two things we can do. If there's Wi-Fi, we can put a booster in. However, there are some very industrial things called bridges and that will boost the signal for 500 metres. Having walked around with Sarah on Tuesday of last week, if there is zero signal within the house then I would suggest that we would need to put maximum number of two bridges in.

Question: I am still not convinced as to why we really haven't tried to find out just how big this gas pocket is. With seismic surveying and the other work that could be done that would help to really define how this solution should have been made. Was it just cost prohibitive and you're not prepared to do it? 

Answer: (HSE) I can't answer it. It's not the cost aspects of it and it’s being looked into currently. Cost estimates have been put forward, but they've been approximate, some costs and those kind of people that undertake this really specialist work, they are being contacted by BGS and others to look at what that might mean for the future, but it's not something that you do here right now. It takes a considerable amount of time and resources and those things are in progress.

In terms of when, I am sure that we can get that for you through speaking to BGS and others I could suggest people that are appropriate to do it, but that isn't really my role as we have to remain independent in all of this. There are specialist providers that do it and they could give us a guesstimate of how long it would take, how much exactly it would cost or what they anticipated costs might be because there's a lot of unknowns in it and how invasive the work would have to be and over what period of time. 

Question: I keep hearing is risk assessment, which is not given us the yes to say we are e safe to go back. Is the fire service inputting into the risk assessments?

Answer: (Fire) Yes, we are one of the stakeholders as part of the advisory group. 

Question: Can you share those risk assessments of what the criteria are? Yeah, no problem. So I'll try and pick up on that as well as.

Answer: (Fire) So the risk assessments themselves will identify where the necessary control measures in order for it to be safe enough that the group, the whole of the technical advisory cell, that will give it options to the strategic Coordinating group, to be able to say these are the levels we're hoping to see. This is zero in air, zero in the premises and background in soil, so these are the levels that we're asking for in order for it to be deemed safe. What the monitoring will do is just to ensure that those levels will remain. So the risk assessment will say this is what we're expecting and this is how we want it to be maintained.

These will be shared with you, so each of the premises will have an individual risk assessment associated with it and that'll be shared with the owner.

Question: How are you going to be able to get this done by the 22nd which is Friday when I haven’t shared my key? Will I be able to ring up and access my property?

Answer: (Fire) We have been collating data, when we have had access to your property, we've done readings in air bricks, letterboxes, etcetera regularly as well, so this is the data that will support the risk assessment. We will, of course, before anyone goes back to their premises, do one more final check to make sure that nothing has changed in that meantime. So hopefully that will give you some reassurance.

(Sarah) We are happy to facilitate people returning to their properties, we have been restricted in the past in terms of the days in which we could do that and had quite small windows of opportunity but we are more flexible now. If you want to contact Anna's team just through the normal contact and we can facilitate this on the days and times that suit you best.

(Craig) I will ask Sarah to do some work to ensure that this date is still feasible. There are risk assessments of your homes and there's the risk assessments associated with the cordon as well. We will let you know if it changes.

Question: How do you know the sealing of the borehole is the right solution without undertaking appropriate investigation to explore the extent of the gas reservoir or pocket?

Is it possible for the expert team to facilitate a geological survey, of this reservoir or pocket, so that an informed conclusion could be made as to whether it is the right remedial measure?

Answer: (HSE) Cementing of boreholes is tried and tested, using concrete to abandon gas reservoirs is the way that is used all over the world to abandon boreholes. Does it need a more extensive Geological Survey to tell us that? Probably not. Would it be useful? It is useful to have as much information as much data as possible, but it isn't absolutely required in these circumstances because this is what is done all over the world. We have done many thousands of boreholes in gas reservoirs using this very same methodology.

Question: It has four weeks since the incident the responding expert teams have not produced proper incident report for better understanding, which could help further in formulating action plans. 

Answer: (Police) I would ask you all what you would consider as acceptable updates in terms of investigation traction. We ordinarily would give you a 28-day update around an investigation, but if there is something particular that you think that you want, then we can factor that in. It might be very high line and it may be that I can't answer it or it's the same update as it was previously because this investigation is going to take some time. Or I can update you when something significant arises within the investigation. I will leave that up to you to decide what you think that may be. And then if you let us know as a group, we'll factor that into the plan.

Question: We have discussed about what impacts it will have on the House value premium and there is an investigation. In terms of like for the disruption of our normal life, is there any price for all these things?

Answer: (Craig) There is a cost and when we get through the legal side of the things we might be looking at what action could be taken if there was evidence of negligence say for example

Question: My concern is ongoing adverse weather conditions and how this will affect the soil around the borehole? Could it lead to any leaking of gas further in the soil if the ground cracks or floods for instance?

Answer: (HSE) This is one of the reasons why extended monitoring is required and we've talked earlier about two pressure drops, but that's not the end of it. A long dry summer could crack the soil and a lot of rain could do other things to the soil and cause all the things to happen with the gas and that's why we need the early warning system in place to give us an indication of what's actually happening and that's not going to happen overnight. That doesn't stop us getting people back into the properties, when we've got the monitoring in place, it enables us to build that bigger picture up. I'm not concerned about the deeper aspects of the borehole, I am more concerned about the surface bits that you've just described in terms of erosion and barometric pressure drying out. That is why it's important for us to keep that monitoring for as long as a period as we can. All of these changes there will be decisions to be taken as to the appropriateness of what we're doing or if we need to do anything different.

Question: Would it be you or your team that have this ongoing support maybe for many, many years?

Answer: (HSE) We need to cover that through the full life cycle and my teams would look at certain aspects of it. BGS would look at certain aspects of it and other specialists as well would have their inputs as well, so it is going to be a joint effort.

Question: You said the gas levels were rising around the borehole. Is that the natural gas coming up that's in the soil existing or is it new gas from the somewhere?

Answer: (Fire) It is believed to be the gas that was entrained as part of the borehole redrilling in the heavy mud, and that's the gas that's now starting to be released because we've seen this atmospheric pressure drop. By all accounts, what we see and how it's being recorded, everything is conducive to it being sealed. It is all about timing, it is just a case of watching, waiting, monitoring.

Question: Did Jim say that not everybody would be getting monitors, and it is based on a risk assessment or readings? I would want a monitor. 

Answer: (Fire) At the moment the risk assessments are at not at that stage to say where it will or it won't be needed, but is a key control measure and it will be difficult not to see them in place but not impossible. But until we get to that stage with the relevant stakeholders and scientific advisors, it is too early to tell, it was a possibility.

(Sarah) In terms of our aim, I think it's certainly been discussed that it would be an offer that would be made. So, whilst it might be a mitigation that might be more crucial for some homes in terms of their risk assessment, I don't think that in any of the conversations we've had that we would be excluding the offer. 

Question: When we went back to the house the time before last, a fire officer was there and I made some comment to her about something's been eating all my veg and he said I don't think it should be eaten anywhere. Can we have some clarification. 

Answer: (Fire) I can't vouch for what they said or why they said it, I would suggest it was probably in jest. What we can do is as part of the technical advisory cell, we have UKHSA, which is the safety group that reports to the government. We'll ask that direct question to ensure that that gets answered for you.

Question: Do we know when the investigation will be concluded and the outcomes published?

Answer: (Police) It is far too early to say give any timeframes or parameters. We are engaging with the CPS and early advice has been sought and we are working in tandem and will continue to work together to build a case, but I can't tell you when it will conclude. I will keep you up to date around what that looks like.

Question: Is there a permanent gauge in the casing? And if it exists, what is it measuring?

Answer: (HSE) There isn't a permanent gauge in the case in no.

Question: This gas is it only found in ground source boreholes or could it be found in the water wells?

Answer: (HSE) Yes, it can be found in water wells, it can be found anywhere, particularly biogenetic gas, because that is the decay of material that gives off methane. So, for example, in refuse types, if you have a waste site that's buried biodegradable products, that  can also give off methane, so there are there are lots of different sources for this type of gas.

Including, if a farm animal dies and in a field that gives off that kind of gas as well, it is biogenetic.

Question: In terms of feeling safe from our perspective as a family going back I would want confirmation from an oil and gas specialist that the borehole was sealed exactly as they would expect it to stand the test of time and I would like reassurance from a third party independent verification.

Answer: (HSE) That is an option and it's something that I think is worth pursuing and there are lots of independent people that could do that.

Question: The plug in the borehole is to reduce the risk. It's not removed it. We're still at risk. Nobody wants to buy our homes. “I can't imagine what you feel like and what you're going through. Who would want to buy one of these”? This came from one of your officers yesterday when we’re threatening me with being arrested. At the moment all you've done is reduced the risk not removed it. So, all our homes are going to remain with people not wanting to buy them. Which agency is going to take full responsibility?

Answer (Mayor) This is a very good question and I went to London and I met the Minister for local government and I put these very same questions to her. We also have our MP, Richard, who's not here tonight, but he's sent two representatives from his office to listen and to take notes. We're asking those questions because we want the answers as you do. We are your representatives, we are asking these questions and we will keep bashing away at the government. I am wanting them to put a minister in charge of this and say that's what they should be doing. The Minister listened very carefully but I didn't get any answers that I wanted. We will eventually get through somehow to get somebody to say this ministry is in charge of boreholes, this minister, so that we can get those sorts of answers.

So it's very, very difficult, but we are doing what we can. We listed all the questions hopefully in the next few weeks and it normally takes government that long that long to work through.

We'll start getting a few answers. You are quite right to ask these questions. I just wish I could do more than say we've asking them as well.
Comment:  I went home yesterday because I've had enough, I am outside of the 100 metres on and I didn't break any cordons and I was threatened with arrest.

Reply: (Police) What you've articulated is completely unacceptable and what I have written down is that I'll look at the body worn camera of the officer that engaged with you at the scene, and we'll take that as an action from this floor today and I'll look up that in some detail just to give you some reassurance, I can see how much this is impacting you alongside everybody that's sitting in this room, I really can, I can't put myself in your position, but I can try to. That engagement is completely unacceptable, what we're trying to do is provide reassurance, not make comments at the scenes of incidents, or certainly be wanting to make any arrests, which is not our intention. We want to work with you as residents, in the calmest fashion, because anything like that is not going to resolve anything.

Question/comment: There is too many inconsistencies, there is a lot of properties here, the houses in Douglas Close are closer than my property but they have not been told to evacuate and I don't have to break any cordons to get to my home and yet I am being told I can't go to my property. You have people that are in the red zone that are in their properties. There are too many inconsistencies. So how can you expect us to abide by those rules when all these consistencies are here?

Answer: (Police) I have got a phone call after this meeting tonight and I will be having a conversation with the TCG chair to ensure that there is, no inconsistency moving forward.

Question: At the first meeting that some of the residents could have rear access from Mowsbury golf course. There was a plan in place for some of the residents to go through the rear gardens of Glenrose and Wagstaff that are outside of the exclusion zone. Is that plan still in place? 

Answer: (Craig) Hopefully there won't be a need to be able to go to the rear of the properties if the relevant assessments are done and we are going to be focused on these tomorrow and every single day going forward. There is a plan in place to be able to support people rather than having to dodge the rabbit holes and break your leg and all the other things that you might want to do if you are going into the rear of the property. Although we can't do that until the police and fire are happy about it in relation to the risk assessments being done. 

Question: Did you say that the second boring company were not the same as the first boring company? Why were then the original boring company not given the permission to do the work? Was it actually the insurance company at the borehole company who said they were to remove themselves from site and not recommission work?

Answer: (HSE) Yes, that’s correct. It was the contract between the builder and the original borehole company and they weren't comfortable with those people continuing with the work and they engaged Drill Core to pick up and do the abandonment of the borehole. In terms of the insurance company, I am not aware of those conversations but it could be the case but I don’t know personally. 

Comment: I'd like the complaints process and details added to the log for both the police and the HSA. I find it incredulous that the HSE are being allowed to investigate themselves, two people have died here and this actually should have been sorted out in July. Everybody took it far too lightly, not seriously enough, and didn't stand up and get done what needed to get done. I am absolutely sure that any investigation should show culpability and if it doesn't, well, there'll be even more questions.

Update from Richard Fullers MP’s Office

Unfortunately he was unable to attend this evening as there was a Treasury statement in the house this evening and he had to be on the front bench to respond to it.

He went last week, and he asked whether he could have a meeting with the minister from the DWP about regulations surrounding ground source heat pumps. The minister confirmed it was the parliamentary Under Secretary of State for DWP and confirmed that she would meet with him and we have a meeting in the first week of December. He will update you on that if you're not following Richard's Facebook page or you're not regularly seeing his website. We also have a weekly newsletter where all his news goes on to so if you go to his website, you can sign up for that. 

When he was last here, he spoke about mechanisms he was trying to use in Parliament to raise the question around Cleat Hill without prejudicing the investigation. And this week, the speaker has granted him an adjournment debate on Thursday evening. So, an adjournment debate is a 30-minute debate that MPs can hold one to one with a minister. It  will be taking place at the end of business on Thursday, probably around 5pm. If you want to tune into the Parliament channel he will be putting a lot of these questions without affecting the investigation.
Question from online: The graph is not accessible, and will everybody be going back at the same time, or is it a more phased response?
Answer: (Claire) The graph will be sent out separately tomorrow. 

(Craig) It depends on the risk assessments, and what the information is coming back with and if there are certain properties at higher risk than other for example. I think they'll also be an element where some people will be just be going back anyway, as has been mentioned already tonight, some cases. So ideally everybody would be going back at the same time, but in reality, I would say that there will be differences in terms of people's perception of risk, and whether the monitoring that you've got in place is sufficient to make you feel that it's safe to go back. The risk assessments are there to give you enough information to make a decision.

Online question: When might the main road possibly reopen?

Answer: (Craig) this comes down to the cordon which is a priority.

Question: Will bins be collected?

Answer: (Craig) The bins that were put out last week were collected on Wednesday. They've just not necessarily been put back in gardens. But as people go back, if their bins haven't been collected, bring them out and we'll just run our normal deliveries throughout the next few weeks.

Panel and meeting introduction

Committee Room 1, Bedford Borough Hall 

Panel:

• Chair (Bedford Borough Council Chief Executive) – Laura Church 
• Health and Safety Executive, Senior HSSE – Paul Bradley
• Bedford Borough Council, Chief Officer of Environment - Craig Austin
• Bedfordshire Police, Chief Inspector – Katherine Rivers
• Bedford Fire and Rescue Service, Assistant Chief Fire Officer – Jim Davies

Mayor Tom Wootton welcomed residents to the meeting. Laura Church set out the structure of the meeting before asking Paul Bradley from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to provide an overview of the current situation on site regarding the borehole and gas readings. 

Paul shared that the sealing of the borehole is completed, all the cement cured. He talked the room through the gas readings provided by British Geological Survey (BGS), stating that the continuous monitoring is showing positive results. 

More detail can be found through the:

• livestream audio
• presentation slides 

Craig Austin updated on the activity being undertaken by the Council. The Council continues to offer support to residents where ever possible, and are reaching out to organisations such as the Association of British Insurers and the Land Registry to seek answers on the questions that have been raised by residents. 

Questions raised

Question: You mentioned the intrusion of the ongoing monitoring, so I'm just curious at the extent of that intrusion, a timescale, would the intrusion be for a month, year or forever? 

Answer: (HSE) From my own perspective and this is reflecting back the advice that we've seen, as we have involved the Coal Authority in what they do in smaller scale circumstances, they typically go through two cycles of pressure drop to give us absolute confidence. We probably need to go through a full season, so it could be 12 months. In terms of if monitoring would be intrusive, knocking on doors every hour, and what monitoring will look like, I would hope not. I would caveat that by saying my preference would be that it isn't that intrusive, but it would be something that is passive but that is not just my decision, that’s a multi-agency decision. 

The whole monitoring process is unlikely to be more than 12 months because that gives you full seasonal variation. In terms of confidence and what the next phase looks like, we will be meeting with residents to discuss this further. Different individuals, will think about things differently, so we want to more detailed discussions with you so that we can explain that and also about how it might last.

Question: Is the investigation into the cause still continuing? Have you made much progress since last week?

Answer: (Fire) We have made good progress, but we still haven't yet determined cause exactly. We are just waiting on a couple of reports to come back, postmortem and some geological reports but it is nearing the end of it now. 

Question: How many response coordinators are there in this and is it on a committee basis or somebody in there who makes the decisions?

Answer: (Laura) It is a within the Local Resilience Forum and this involves a whole range of partners. Key ones are Fire, Police, Local Authority, Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency and UK Health Security Agency who are looking at the wider implications of health. There is a chair of the forum and it sits at different levels, that chair is currently sitting with the Police, but that sometimes changes.

(HSE). I give advice to all those individuals, along with the specialists who are providing the scientific information. It is an informed decision and that goes through different tiered levels, strategic, tactics and scientific and each one feeds into the next and you've got you know some of the greatest minds on this.

(Laura) We are working to ensure that those decisions can be made at the appropriate time. The big activity at the moment is the scientific and technical advice that's going in. We have just talked about weather, so that is Met Office input and we have been asking for some specific advice from the Coal Authority, so we will get lots of information and advice. They will give advice to us as the Strategic Coordination Group, and then we've hopefully will be able to make some decisions. But we are always asking lots of questions to make sure that we can give you the reassurance that you are asking for. 

Question: I have one of these monitoring stations on my front lawn and I am quite happy for that to stay there for the next 12 months as I think anybody else with a monitoring station on their property would be prepared to do. A red cross on the grass might not last, can you put a cane in and trust us to leave the cane in the same place or something like that?

Answer: (Laura) We are monitoring in three different ways, the soil, the air and testing in properties and we want to make sure that we've got the right monitoring in place in all of those three ways. We want it to work so that you're not having someone knocking on the door, so that is what we're working on at the moment to give you that reassurance.

Question: I'm looking for a real clear statement of criteria of when it is safe to return to our homes. You have spoken this evening about changes in pressure, so that would be one of them. It would also be about the levels of emissions in the soil and the air, so for me there is a whole dashboard of stuff. It would be good to see this written down somewhere on the slide pack so we can see the direction of travel?

Answer: (HSE) In houses we are looking at no parts per million. In the air we are looking for no parts per million. In the ground BGS are doing those background checks, which includes areas of soil that haven't been impacted by this incident to give what normal looks like. What is in the soil at 700 millimetres below the surface, might be X parts per million and it is whether there is a change to that. For residents, monitoring would alert, potentially to a fixed point, but also to individual houses on what is happening.

Question: You have spoken previously about the deployment of the packer and then subsequently explained why the packer wasn't used and the solution ultimately was to use a drilling mine to push back the gas and then the cement to make good and go all the way back to the top to plug the gap. To what extent has this solution been deployed previously on land? 

Answer: (HSE) It is used a lot. It is used extensively.

Question: Can you confirm that this has been work has been done in accordance with regulations, standards, code of practice, and who would then be able to certify that work has been done in accordance with the standards and code of practise? Can it be explored how we can get this safety certification or equivalent?

Answer: (HSE) Yes, it's been done in accordance with regulation, to approved codes of practice and done to the guidelines that you get from the different societies and associations. In terms of certifying it, that isn't something that I think personally is possible at this moment in time. This is why the scientific testing is very important. And there is no certification process. 

The testing regime is verification of what's happened, so the readings over an over an extended period over environmental changes is the verification. I cannot write out a certificate to say it is absolutely 100% certain, but what we can do is verify that work has not caused more gas to come out of what's already been sealed. I believe we've sealed the borehole at source but environmental changes could bring out more gas into your homes, it could, I am not saying it will. The testing and monitoring regime will verify if that is the case or not. It is calibrated and scientific equipment, so there are no ifs and maybes to give you that confidence. 

(Laura) We will take that away.

Question: The inspection camera inspection that you mentioned previously, is that  something that happened beforehand? Is there still chance of a gas pocket or accumulation of gas underneath?

Answer: (HSE) The camera for inspection didn't happen because of the difficulties of getting back into the borehole. The clean up was done with a smaller size drill bit, heavy duty mud was introduced to get the gas back in, which then allowed the cement to be put in place. Ideally, we would have been able to run a camera, but that didn't happen. There will be gas under that cement and it will be there, as it has been for a long time. I am not able to quantify it because I don't know exactly. The cement in the borehole has sealed that gas down, the gas that could be elsewhere in the soil is what we are trying to ascertain now to prove that this has been successful.

Question: Was it possible that there was gas in the soil prior to this incident and prior to the borehole being drilled?

Answer: (HSE) Yes, it is possible at lower levels, because when it meets the atmosphere it is such an extent you wouldn't notice it.

Question: Just to be clear about the weather conditions, are you saying that we've got to have every one of those weather conditions happen before we can get back to our homes? 

Answer: (Laura) Paul was just raising the point that there are lots of different weather conditions, and we will have the opportunity to test the gas levels at various points in different seasons. 

Question: Related to that question about when we can go back in and how much monitoring is in place. Also conscious of conversations that have been raised previously about conditions of insurance. I'm very aware that the 30 days availability to be living under your own roof is very rapidly approaching. Can we get a feel for whether this monitoring will be in place before the 30 days?

Answer: (Laura) When we've had the two companies on site, we'll know how much availability they have of equipment that we need. Both Companies attended on Tuesday. At the moment, I can't answer that. We have raised that question with the Association of Insurers who presented at one of these meetings and their advice is that you should speak to your individual insurer and it will depend on your policy. Some policies have 30 days, some policies have 60 days, so you need to know what's in your policy, but speak to your insurance company. We did also raise with them the query that we had last time about whether they would to support residents that are going through this, whether they would look at waiving that. But again, they said that's an individual discussion with each insurance company.

Question: Is there any opportunity for us to move back in given the monitoring situation may not be in place?

Answer: (Laura) We will want to continue to monitor to work that out , because we need to be sure that it's safe to go back.

Question: With drought conditions, would that cause issues as well under the ground?

Answer: (HSE) In drought conditions the ground dries up and cracks and that is a circumstance that has to be taken into consideration.

Question: There is a lot of different plans going on, what is stopping you putting in a timetable? And if the risks are now much reduced than they were, what is stopping us moving back? I would be happy to move back with regular monitoring put in place.

Answer: (Laura) We couldn’t do that tonight as there are still some things we didn’t know and we also want to know about the monitoring and how we can do that. 

(Craig) I agree, we don't know a lot of things, but we could put some things down but it might not be complete and have some gaps. 

(Laura) We have got to have discussions with you individually and groups about what you feel about monitoring and returning as I don't think that would be the same for everybody in the room. 

Comment: I'm getting a lot of anxiety listening to this conversation, I work in London and my children live locally. I have to have the confidence that they could walk home and sit there until I get back on a train. There is no way I'm feel safe to leave my children in a house that I am not convinced is safe. We have got to recognise that everybody has different circumstances.

(Laura) There are different people in the room who have experienced this differently and who will respond differently. This is why we think there needs to be different discussions with different groups of people and individuals because you will all feel differently about what you've experienced, and when you will feel safe. 

The ongoing monitoring is an important element of what we're trying to do. We will respond to what you've said to us tonight about what that road map looks like, but we also wanted to explore with more individuals about what that looks like because it will be different for different people and different localities.

Question: I've got to sort of CCTV around my house and I'm getting regular updates of the police presence around. Have you had any abnormal happening around the cordoned off area?

Answer: (Police) Nothing has been reported back to me. 

Question: At the last meeting, you said you were going to go back and talk to the planners about protecting the top of the borehole in the future? 

Answer: (Craig) We had a meeting and talked about this today and looking into what regulations and what powers we could potentially use. We've got some advice that's gone out there in terms of what we can do, we've got the planning team looking at different elements of that. There are there are regulations associated with any business but there is very little that's actually quite specific about this. There are definitely gaps within the regulations, so we have got people looking at that and trying to find a way. 

Question: That plot of land, can that now not be touched or built on? 

Answer: (Craig) I have asked the planners to look at, but it's not just a case an officer just looking down saying yes or no, it needs to have some legal advice on that. At this point in time, we haven't got the answer that you need to have. 

(HSE) With former coal mines, shafts can be 8 metres in diameter and that's straight into a methane resource. They have been filled, successfully cemented with different phases, and then there's housing estates built on top of and that is quite extensive across the country. A few years ago the sealing process wasn't as efficient and  effective as it should be, and there's been circumstances and methane has been released. The Coal Authority have got real good examples of this. We need to come together and advise what the local authority in different sections, not just Bedford, as it needs to be wider than that, about what is appropriate in these circumstances. 

Question:  I would like to know going forward how we the residents can play a big role in championing an outcome? I would like to see some kind of forum.

Answer: (Craig) We will lead and help support on that.

Question: In the last meeting, there were all sorts of gas samples taken, in different locations around the site and outside of the exclusion. At the time we didn't have any analysis to say whether all the gas was coming from the same source, can we have an update on this?

Answer: (HSE) Yes, BGS got the results of that analysis, but some of that analysis is to deal with the background levels, so not the same source. We have been checking through BGS, what does normal for Bedford looks like that hasn't been disturbed by gas from the borehole. They need to tie those two together with what has happened. They have got the results now but they have not yet presented the final outcomes of that yet, but I think that's been done as of today and it will continue this week to get analysis done in the laboratories and get them independently verified as well.

Question: How will HSE do its investigation? Will it be an open investigation? 

Answer: (HSE) We remain independent of this process. We are working with the police, it is a joint investigation with the police on the circumstances of this incident and what happened in July as well, and the two will undoubtedly come together.

What we can tell you is what the progress is, how far we've got along that and some of you will be involved in that investigation as well, providing information and evidence.

Question: In July this bung was ordered and delayed, why was this bung which was so important twice now not been used? Which method is the best/safest method?

Answer: (HSE) It was not used because of the difficulties of getting back into the bore hole with the drill bit that needed to go in there to allow that to be deployed. Going with a smaller drill bit, meant that they couldn't get that packer into place. That's when the really heavy drill mud was used which forced the gas back in and this was displaced by using cement to seal it off. So in in effect the drill mud, which is heavy drill mud, was utilised in place of the packer.

The safest method is to use cement from the start, because then you've not got a void, so getting right down to where the gas source is the safest to be position the cement where it is needed. In July this was the preferred option that the drilling company want to pursue and there was nothing wrong with that option.

Question:  Who gave the OK for everybody to go back on site? Who said it was OK to carry on?

Answer: (HSE) It's more of an expansive answer to that, so what was happening in July was, until the equipment was there on site the gas from the borehole was being bent at its surface, so it was going down to 0. Then there was an intervention which created a problem, but the vent system was still working adequately, and it was at 0.

Then this is our working hypothesis, which has still got to be confirmed, that the amount of rainfall and the blocking partial blocking of the borehole cause things to change and change the dynamic of the gas migration. This is what I believe, although I can’t give you a factual answer on this because this is what the investigation will determine. 

In terms of what was happening at that point in time with the surrounding ground, and did anyone know about it, we don't know that yet and that's what the investigation needs to determine. So it was a safe situation prior to what happened. And then the environmental aspects of what happened changed the dynamic of the gas migration.

Question: I am still unclear as to how much monitoring going forward is going to be deemed adequate if the weather conditions do not cooperate and you are seeking a range of different barometric readings. How are you going to get that if you don't get the weather that gives you those? Then have I understood correctly that if you don't get those range of readings, you don't want us to go home?

Answer: (HSE) We wouldn't take the monitoring away in those circumstances, so to get through those at least two phases of changes that are in those kind of levels that I've talked about, rapid drops and then freezing conditions, those kind of examples.
Then the monitoring would remain in place until we got that assurance that everybody's seeking.

We need to have the monitoring in place that everybody's comfortable with and we've heard the different certain scales of that to enable you to make an informed decision around what we're suggesting is the right approach. 

Question: My personal opinion is I'm very pleased to see the gas levels at, you know, minus 1 part million outside the only gas that's worrying me is gas that could be coming up within the properties through cavities into spaces that we don't wouldn't know. So, the monitoring we're talking about with these companies, is there something like a passive system for within the properties being considered?

Answer: (Laura) What is what we are looking at and there are devices that you can have that are portable or that will show you, but it doesn't cover the issue that Jim raised about such as if you have been away on holiday for a period of time. We are looking at things that will allow that to record and send data somewhere, so that's what we want to just check out and how will work, how intrusive they would be and what signal they need. One of the questions we have today is around 4G signal and whether that would be an issue. Laura asked the room if it would be an issue and there was agreement in the room that this would be an issue which was confirmed by Mayor Tom Wootton. 

Question: You probably done some research already, but bore holes site regulations have to operate under regulations and also the ground source heat pump association have written standards and there are the legislations out there.

Answer: (HSE) Bore holes regulations apply to the extraction of oil and gas primarily for looking for mining resources, but it's guidance as well as in regulation. It's really helpful to the drilling companies and obviously doing this activity all in those principles will generally meet the requirements of health and safety legislation across the piece. I have personally been doing a piece of communication with all of those joint companies to promote that approach.

Question:  Do we know what the actual depth where the bore hole is plugged up?

Answer: (HSE) All the way from the 102 metre mark to surface.

Question: And the depth to which the casing was installed, do we know that?

Answer: (HSE) Yes, that was done to -12.5 approximate metres, including the top bits of it, which is below where the perceived obstruction was, and it was set on top of existing cement. It was already cured and then it was cemented up the middle and around the outside of the casing and that was drilled into position. The top section, which is what I've just described, has been cemented also.

Question: Do we know how the gas accumulated at this step?

Answer: (HSE) This is naturally occurring biogenetic gas, so it forms in lots of different ways, but typically it's the decay of carboniferous materials that then forms into hydrocarbons, and this particular gas it’s constituents are typically methane and ethane.

Question: Do we know what size the gas reservoir is?

Answer: (HSE) No.

Question: Are you looking at like potentially installing permanent monitoring, maybe something with Internet data reporting?

Answer: (Laura) Yes, but that is why we need to know before we come down with that option that 4G works or other connections. So that's why it's really important that the companies that we're talking to come and do about the site visit and come have a look.

Question: Did we ever determine what the flow rate of gas was?

Answer: (HSE) I've not got that data to hand with me but yes we did.

Question: Do we know if there's any borehole logging done?

Answer: (HSE) Yes, there was.

Question: Was the NSTA consulted in relation to the plug and abandonment?

Answer: (HSE) Yes, but they don't need to be because the team have got the experts
that deal with this in the UK continental shelf but really high temperature, high pressure environments, and it was the same process.

Question: Would the NSTA be able to give us some sort of certification?

Answer: (HSE) They could be asked but they don't certify abandonments. I could ask their view of that and others could ask their view of that.

Question: Is it worth while getting an independent investigation done on this? Someone from America to give us that view and expertise?

Answer: (HSE) I've been across to America to advise them on Deepwater Horizon, so they've come to us. It is an independent investigation.

Question: Following the year of monitoring everything, say in 2-3 years time we have real record rainfall. Would you then come back and re-monitor everything?

Answer: (HSE) I don't think that's unreasonable. Personally, I think some sample monitoring is useful and that will probably be human intervention.

Question: We had a letter from the police and being contacted, when can we expect that to happen?

Answer: (Police) I can't speak directly for the investigation team, but I do appreciate there are lots of witnesses and lots of bits to follow up so it probably will come in due course.

Question: Prior to the explosion, there was some something was put down or there's a blockage within that, which is obviously let things go sideway, and that was probably what if I remember 10 to 12 days prior to the actual explosion happening, is that right? Is that right?

Answer: (HSE) I've not looked at that time frame personally and that’s what the investigation's dealing with. What I can tell you is the when the casing was set, was that where the blockage was it went past very, very easily. It didn't cause any obstruction. I have got the confidence that if there was cement and blockage in there that it has been dealt with.

Question: How can we help with pushing forward regulations that need to change going ahead?

Answer: (Laura) As a residents group you can provide that information of why you think more regulation in this area is really important. You can provide that to us. But actually if you form a residents association or a formal group, and you've already done that, you can take that and you can make that opportunity. You can either go via Richard or you can start doing it where you are talking directly to organisations like the ground source heat pump association or directly to departments like the  Department for Energy. You can do that as a residents association or as groups of residents, we can do it on your behalf and that is what we have been doing and will l continue to do that. But you have a powerful voice as a group.

Question: With the readings within the soils, what do you constitute as the dangerous levels? 

Answer: (HSE) For methane to ignite it has to be in the range of 5% to 15% volume in an area. As the ground readings, we don't know what they were at the time because they would have been as they weren't being monitored at the time. The air monitoring was in place at the time, this was human intervention and obviously things went wrong and that's what we've got to determine what went wrong and why.

Question: On a practical level, are you expecting to go into each home and check levels before you let people in?

Answer: (HSE) We are doing that on every home visit, the levels are being checked.
checks are through letter boxes, cavities, plug sockets for example. All the areas where you might expect such as the loft space for example.

Question: Can we have verify that we can have the heating on?

Answer: (Craig) Yes, you can.

Question: If in coal mining areas it was covered over and signed off to say it was safe, there must be a way to do the same for this borehole?

Answer: (Laura) We still haven’t answered this and we will continue to follow up on this.

Question: (From MP Richard Fuller to Laura Church) I am aware that the East West Rail company have contacted residents on the line of route today to say, including in Ravensden, saying that they want to drill boreholes. Are they aware of the circumstances in Ravensden?

Answer (Laura) I am aware of the EWR consultation and contacted the Chief Executive but not about boreholes. When they are looking at the route they will need to provide information on the geophysics of their proposals, because particularly in this area that is quite sensitive. I did raise that with the Chief Executive, but I haven't had any information about drilling bore holes, but I'm sure when we next meet them we will raise that with them. But we'll follow up on that. 

[Post meeting follow up – this has now been raised with EWR]
 

Panel and meeting introduction

The meeting took place in Committee Room 1 at Borough Hall in Bedford.

Panel:

• Chair (Bedford Borough Council Chief Executive) – Laura Church 
• Bedford Fire and Rescue Service, Assistant Chief Fire Officer – Jim Davies
• Bedford Fire and Rescue Service  –  Peter Knight
• Ground Source Heat Pump Association – John Findlay
• Health and Safety Executive, Senior HSSE – Paul Bradley
• British Geological Survey, Chief Scientist – Michelle Benthem 
• Bedford Borough Council, Chief Officer of Environment - Craig Austin
• Bedfordshire Police, Chief Inspector – Katherine Rivers

Mayor Tom Wootton welcomed residents to the meeting, and explained that this is a further opportunity to hear from the key organisations involved in the incident as well as experts from Ground Source Heat Pump Association (present online).

Laura reiterated that the Council’s key priority is first and foremost about residents’ safety. It was noted that the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) remain in the ‘response stage’ and aim to keep residents informed as we go through forward. 

The slides presented can be seen here (PDF).

Letters were also made available for all residents who may find ‘proof of incident’ documents helpful. If you were not present at the meeting, you can pick up your letter from St Mark’s Church, or request an email from us by calling the Council on the emergency helpline. 

Questions raised

Question: I have been asked by a neighbour about the build at the site of the borehole (7 Cleat Hill). What is the Council’s position on the continuation of that build. My neighbour is concerned whether it will continue in the future and if it does continue, whether its continuation could compromise the steps that have been taken to keep the site safe?

Answer: (Laura) We will have a discussion with our planning colleagues about this and the status of that development. 

(Craig) There is a garage on site, we will speak to our planning colleagues. This is still being investigated and we do not know how long this investigation will take. 

Question: If this situation continues and our absence goes over the 30-day mark, this may have an impact on insurance. Some of our insurers have indicated we might be asked to pay a premium, will the Council reimburse any premium we have to incur?

Answer: (Laura) I, Craig and the Chief Fire Officer have had a discussion with the Government Department to raise the issue that this insurance piece still needs to be answered. We do not have enough clarity yet, and we as a Council we will need to know how we would claim that money back if we were able to support residents with reimbursements. Having some discussions with our MHCLG we have flagged this today and they have agreed to follow up on this. Richard Fuller MP has also asked questions to MHCLG around this as well.

Question: With regards to mortgages, one condition of my mortgage is that I have to have the property insurance, it is possible going forward insurance may not be offered or offered at an unaffordable rate. The gentleman that attended the last meeting from the Association of Insurers did not give me much comfort and I would welcome clarification on this.

Answer: (Laura) We need to go back to the insurance industry to ask more questions around this as the gentleman that attended the last meeting gave quite a general answer and said he was happy to follow up on individual circumstances. When the Association of British Insurers (ABI) know more about the individual policies they are able to provide clearer information on a case by case basis. 

Question: What monitoring was agreed at that point in July as it clearly was not sufficient and how do we know if what is being done now is sufficient to make our homes safe? At what point do you consider it to be safe to return- are we going back at a 95% confidence level or is it 100% confidence? It is important for us.

Answer: (HSE) Yes, there is a lot more enhanced monitoring now and it appears there was sufficient monitoring at the time. However, we need to unpick this as it will be part of the criminal investigation. More formalised and higher-level monitoring has been working very well and my confidence levels have been raised with the latest inflow tests prove that we are getting no gas at surface level. In terms of confidence going forwards, we need more testing time and we work with others to ensure we have that scientific information and ensure there are contingency arrangements in place so if there is failure we have the right response as we cannot be 100% certainty in what the outcomes might be. We are confident in what has been done to date, on Wednesday morning when we return to the borehole we will have more information, more background monitoring we will then be more confident and can move on to filling up the borehole completely and continue monitoring. It is a multi approach, it is not decision making by committee it is informed decision making by the various agencies to come to the right conclusions for the borehole. 

(Laura) We will have more idea of what we are seeing from the monitoring that BGS are carrying out, we have air monitoring happening and probes going into people’s letterboxes. This will give us a view of what is happening and then from there we can look at the plan going forwards and the next steps. We are aware that even if collectively we say it is safe, residents will have your own views and there is further work for us to do around reassurance.

Question: Around the multi agency approach, it is reassuring at one level, as there are several stakeholders who understand their business, but who is ultimately responsible? 

Answer: (Laura) We are trying to give that reassurance collectively, but in terms of overall accountability, we are still testing that out. This is a complex situation and there is not an easy answer, as there are lots of different organisations involved at the moment.

Question: Are we now working on the basis of a four-week plan, as if so, we would like to book our Airbnb for the next four weeks. 

Answer: (Craig) We will be working on the four-week plan adapted this week and we have had some positive news in terms of progress, so we hope that this plan will turn more into a recovery plan to get residents safely back into their homes. 

(Laura) We have said to them that this recovery stage is around confidence and residents are asking lots of questions. Some questions we have been able to answer, but some are more complicated, so we have gone to the communities department at MHCLG for answers so we keep raising issues with them. 

(HSE) Some of the readings we have been seeing have been very positive and I have spoken to the Coal Authority to get their technical knowledge and experience as they deal with methane going into homes quite often.

Question: We had some high readings across the area are we sure it is from gas from the borehole and is it possible for the gas to appear at the other side of the road to Brickhill?

Answer: (BGS) We have had some high readings across the whole of the area, we are not absolutely sure, our hypothesis is that this is where it has come from. We have gas samples which are currently being analysed, the isotopic analysis will determine the chemical signature if show if it is the same as the gas coming out of the borehole. We are hoping for the results this week. We have done some measurements outside of the cordon to ensure we are covering as much as we can.

Question: Have you started the fire investigation at the scene to determine the cause? If it from the borehole, do we know how it got there?

Answer: (Fire) The fire investigation is still ongoing and at this time it is still too early to tell and we are working with other colleagues to identify the potential pathways for the gas if this is the cause. 

(HSE) We are looking at the excavation of the new property so there are new drains there, gas coming up from the borehole, the pathways are fairly obvious, but we need to prove or disprove it. It is more than likely it was borehole, we have ruled out natural gas.

Question: With the talk of the four-week timescale, when is the four weeks from? We feel we need some sort of timescale as we all have approaching timescales, eg accommodation.

Answer: (Craig) It was a four week plan from when the explosion happened, so we are currently in week three of that initial four-week plan. We need to look for the next four weeks, it could be less, as Thursday we will have more information and have more indication of where we are going. 

Question: The map (29 October) shows the highest readings are far away from the borehole, is this what you would expect, is this good/bad and could the explosion have affected the sub structure?

Answer: (BGS) We do not know the exact geology in the region, we have some prognosis which there are a number of sedimentary layers and these layers all have different permeability. The permeability affects how easy it is for things to move through them, for examples sponges have high permeability. We would guess there is a high permeability pathway that the gas has found its way into and travelled through that. As things were happening at the well at the time, pressures were changing and that can cause gas out in different directions as well so this is also important to consider. Everyone in BGS is working on this at the moment and at the moment we are working on and it is not alarming we have some higher readings in some areas as it is natural geology and we need to stop the gas coming out and getting into the natural geology and spreading across these permeable pathways. It could be going along the services.

Question: Was the packer/expandable plug put in or was the borehole just filled with cement?

Answer: (HSE) It was not put in due to complications with the drill bit. A smaller bit was used and did get to the bottom of the borehole, the plug was too big and when the mud was put in, it stopped gas coming to the surface, we put in cement allowed it to set and when we inflowed with water to test, no gas came through.  

Question: When can we go back to retrieve items such as documents?

Answer: (Sarah Hall) We do have a window of opportunity over the next few days to get residents into their property. We will send a text message out and book in residents. It is a bit of a clunky process, but safety is our priority and this does occasionally when residents might have to wait in your car.

Question: I am concerned about heating and frozen pipes as my heating is turned off. Can we put on the heating in our property? And what support can we get if our pipes flood? Could houses have water drained/taps turned off to stop this issue?

Answer: (HSE) No heating to be put on.

(Laura) We can look into this and seek more advice on this. 

(Fire) Any where we get high readings within properties we will isolate.

The room was asked by show of hands if their heating was on or off and about half of the room said it was on and the half said it was off.

Question: There has been no mention of the second fatality. Also, when we talk about the multi agency approach, was this the same approach from back in July?

Answer: (HSE) It was a multi agency approach (fire, police, HSE, BGS and others), we did not all actively participate but information was provided. At that time it was a safe position, but things changed and this is what the investigation will look at. 

(Laura) Thank you for the reminder that two people have unfortunately lost their lives in this incident.

Question: In terms of accountability, Richard has written three in-depth letters, but we can see from previous incidents where they have been inquiries and investigations and no one has been held accountable.

Answer: (Laura) This is where Richard Fuller MP is working and writing to ministers and the Council are following up on this. Accountability and not having a long inquiry, we don’t have the answers to that tonight. It is part of the MP’s role to hold ministers and the Government and others to account.

(Richard Fuller) Thank you to all residents for your resilience. I am not part of the investigation or multi-agency response, my role is to gather questions from my constituents and seek the answers. I did speak to the speaker of the House of Commons and I am hoping on Wednesday to hear if I am granted a debate next week which will be the first time in parliament that this issue will be raised. There is more leeway in parliament for me to ask questions but this should not affect any criminal investigations or police procedures. If residents have any questions, they want me to raise at the debate please email them to Richard.fuller.mp@parliament.uk

I feel in my view this incident did not start a few weeks ago, it started on the Tuesday 2 July and said it is important we bring the focus back to that date, whilst still dealing with the issues that have arisen since the explosion. In terms of the two fatalities, when looking back at the history of blow outs or similar explosions you have to go back a long time to find any incidents of anyone dying. 

Question: When the borehole first struck gas, why wasn’t it treated as a gas well, why was it continued to be treated as a geothermal borehole. If it was treated as a gas well, would this has affected the response?

Answer: (HSE) When the borehole struck gas, the regulations that are bespoke to oil and gas regulations did not apply but the principles of dealing with gas had to be followed. The way it had to be followed was to go with the safest option which was to vent that gas until something could be put into place. It was working fine and all the monitoring was indicating that and gas readings were taken at the top of the stack. Then things changed and there was an intervention that changed the dynamics and the physics of the borehole and that is what the investigation will focus on. 

(Fire) This is a unique incident and it is clear that this is some sort of industrial accident. The isolation of this leak was not going to be simple and although the fire service took the initial call, we knew we needed to move to a multi agency approach. 

Question: From the 2 July onwards, who was in charge back then? 

Answer: (HSE) The drilling contractor was responsible for that activity, they cannot discharge that duty to someone else, they had to put it right and the safest and quickest way to do that was to vent to surface. This was done in the complete understanding of all the agencies including the Environment agency but what happened after that point is subject to investigation.

Question: What risk is there of fissures or fragmentations around the hole where the drilling took place, could the surrounding limestone been damaged and if so, could that allow some gas to come out? Will there be ongoing gas monitoring, perhaps automated to indicate if there are high levels of gas when we do return to our homes?

Answer: (HSE) We have got the gas back where it is supposed to be and sealed it in, if the gas cant get back out from where it is up to where the ground may be fractured or not, that will not change the geology of what is there because it is likely it was like that before. Cememting it from right at the bottom of the borehole right up to surface means that creates the best seal it can possibly have. In terms of monitoring this is something we need Council advice to determine what it will look like.

(Laura) We don’t have the answer that this now, we have monitoring on the ground now, in the air and in properties, but we need to work out what that ongoing monitoring will look like.  

Question: In the event of blow out, is it normal procedure or legal requirement to estimate the rate at which the hydrocarbons are flowing? 

Answer: (BGS) In theory it may be possible to work out a rate but we don’t have that information at the moment. This situation isn’t necessarily a blow out, it is a gas that has been penetrated and then has travelled up to the surface in a fairly steady rate.  

(HSE) We can calculate the theoretical amount of gas that has been released from the borehole but we can’t tell you what definitively what is still in the ground.

Question: At the last meeting we heard that the initial line of inquiry was if this partial blockage at -10.7 metres was caused by the water rainfall and storm ingress and further down the well there was possibility of cement there. Did this indicate that the initial attempts fracture the formation and make the situation worse?

Answer: (HSE) The cement that was in the hole was passed with the drill bit and it wasn’t full column, it was passed quite quickly. There was a blockage, the drill got down to 35m and this released the gas back to surface, back up to 4-bar pressure. We know there was a partial blockage in there, some caused by previous attempts to cement it and the environmental conditions most likely caused the borehole to block and for the gas to then look for other ways to get out. It wasn’t the fracturing of the drilling that caused the collapse of the building.

Question: Was the right expertise around in the July incident and had that continued through the rest of the period.

Answer: (HSE) It is subject to the investigation, we will find out what has happened and we will look at our part in this from the start. 

Question: We have heard a rumour that Paul Swales has left his house/land to the Council (he was building a respite centre) and if so, will building work recommence?

Answer: (Craig) I will look into this and seek some legal advice.

Question: When drilling boreholes, are drilling companies meant to test the ground in advance of drilling?

Answer: (Ground Source Heat Pump Association) Generally what happens before you drill you need to do a detailed review of the underlying geology and look at the formation of the geology you are drilling through and the risks. The risks are generally around borehole stability, water flow to surface and in certain parts of the country where there has been mining, there are additional risks. Areas that are controlled by the Coal Authority, you need to obtain a permit to drill with various constraints and things to monitor. Cleat Hill is not in an area that was previously mined so there was no need for a permit but generally they need to look at geology and other boreholes that were drilled in the area in the last 10/50/100 years (this information is on the BGS website). If you look at the boreholes around Cleat Hill you would be none the wiser, there is no indication or sign that there is gas at 100 metre as no one has drilled to that depth. 

Question: What guarantees can we be given that the Council will fight our corner and take this as far as possible?

Answer: (Mayor Tom Wootton) Me and Richard Fuller will be your trade union to fight for residents all the way and I live nearby, and I am determined to get this solved. We will do all we can and we are here for you for years to come. 

Question: Thursday seems to be a poignant day - will we get an update on what is happening?

Answer: (Laura) On Thursday we will communicate with everyone with the findings and if necessary, we will set up a Zoom call to share more information. 

 

Panel and meeting introduction

Meeting held at St Mark’s Church and Community Centre.

Panel:

• Chair (Bedford Borough Council Chief Executive) – Laura Church 
• Bedford Fire and Rescue Service, Assistant Chief Fire Officer – Jim Davies
• Bedford Fire and Rescue Service  – Peter Knight
• Association of British Insurers, Assistant Director & Head of Public Affairs – Chris Rumsey
• Health and Safety Executive, Senior HSSE – Paul Bradley
• Bedford Borough Council, Chief Officer of Public Health – Ian Brown 
• Bedford Borough Council, Chief Officer of Environment - Craig Austin
• Bedfordshire Police, Chief Inspector – Katherine Rivers

Laura Church thanked everybody for coming tonight and confirmed she was chairing the meeting. Explained that this is an opportunity to hear from lots of different organisations involved in the incident and an opportunity to hear from experts. The feedback from the meeting held on Thursday 24 October highlighted the request to understanding the insurance position. 

Chris Rumsey from the Association of British Insurers was present online to answer insurance related questions. 

The British Geological Society were unable to attend, any questions raised for them will be passed on, and we encourage residents to email us any further questions relating to the incident to proffice@bedford.gov.uk.  

Laura advised that Paul Swales, the landowner, is now in the public domain with press interest. Laura advised that to stress again we are focussed on safety, and this is the prime issue for us at the moment. 

The slides presented can be seen here (PDF).

Updates from the panel

Update from Jim Davies, Bedford Fire and Rescue Service

As of 4pm on Monday 28 October, all residents have been allowed back into their houses to collect belongings and essential items. We will remain on scene and on site to support our partner agencies to support residents on an ongoing basis. 

We are still yet to determine the exact cause, but the structure is being established and we can then delve further. The cordon is unaffected from that set at the start, 100 meters.  We are still yet to determine the exact cause, but the structure is being established and we can then delve further. The cordon is unaffected from that set at the start, 100 meters.  When we can reduce that we will but safety is our number one priority. 

Update from Paul Bradley, Health and Safety Executive (HSE)

Paul advised that the drilling company have moved the drill bit and cleared the blockage, which was a mixture of grout and other strata in there, a partial blockage of the borehole and beyond the 10.7 meters mark. Gas pressure can now freely vent, and current pressure readings are at 4 bar.
Paul further advised that surrounding the array of monitoring the cordon remains in place. It has gone beyond the 10.7 meters and the mark drill bit is down at 66 meters, it is not enough to get the gas back into the pocket where it needs to be. Some drill mud was sourced from Norwich and was mixed with water to give it a different gravity. Mix the two together and it gives the downward pressure needed. The drilling contractor has sourced additional material as the original reached its limit. Other conditioners will be mixed in, when that solution is mixed and the weight of the mud we will continue drilling. It needs to be done in a controlled way. More gas could come out and it could decrease with the more mud weight. Continuous monitoring will remain in place. 

Paul advised that the next steps are Barite to be sourced and delivered, mud mixing to give overbalance to push gas back into strata and then the cleaning and ream the borehole to bottom hole depth. Then to determine the most suitable position for packer to be deployed.  Then expanded, inflatable packer is 5 inches and expanded to seal off. Integrity tested and then hopefully over the next couple of days we will know if it’s been successful. The first lot of mud there was twice as much mud mixed than the volume of the borehole, so we have to accommodate for that. 

The British Geological Survey are collecting gas samples to give us more information about source and potential amount.  We need to get the gas back into the pocket and seal it in there so it can’t come back to surface. The array around the site which is being monitored we can see the decrease of gas in the vicinity.  

Update from Bedfordshire Police Chief Inspector Rivers

Chief Inspector Rivers provided an update and reiterated that the primary focus is safety. The police continue to work with partners to determine the investigation into the cause of the explosion.  Residents may be contacted to get your observations of the incident. Police officers remain at the cordon to monitor the area and maintain the security of your properties, as well as supporting  residents that need to go into the properties to collect your belongings. 

Update from Chris Romsey, Association of British Insurers (ABI)

Chris advised that the best advice ABI can give is to contact insurers ASAP to discuss the situation and what support may be available.  Where properties are affected by physical damage alternative accommodation is included as standard and your insurer will work with you to provide any support required. 

Where physical damage is not applicable alternative accommodation is not usually included, but still speak with your insurer to see if they can provide any support. Support considered on a case-by-case basis.  

Update from Ian Brown, Public Health (Bedford Borough Council)

Ian provided an update and focussed on the concerns about ongoing health in connection to Methane. Methane is non-toxic and should not cause any health effects. However, high levels can reduce the amount of oxygen breathed from the air. The immediate health effects from a high level of methane exposure can be reversed by moving to a well-ventilated area or otherwise increasing oxygen intake.

What is less clear is about long-term health effects, which are unlikely ,and it is not thought to cause cancer.  If children were exposed, it would affect them the same. For pregnant women there is limited data available but not possible to draw any definitive conclusions. Effects on unborn children are more likely to occur if the exposure to methane causes the mother to be unwell during pregnancy. 

Update from Craig Austin, Bedford Borough Council

Officers continue to liaise with residents to provide ongoing support and advice. Advice and support centre at St Mark’s Church. Financial support continues as does 24/7 emergency helpline and text updates sent daily. We will continue to work with partners to give residents access to their properties. Free office space at Borough Hall Monday to Friday.

We appreciate that this is half-term week for families with children, and would like to share information on free activities and services with residents via the text message updates. We are also offering free office space at Borough Hall Monday to Friday. If you require any support, please contact us through the helpline and our teams will work to accommodate your needs.

Update from Richard Fuller MP

Richard advised that he held a session with residents on Saturday 26 October collecting broader issues, general sense of unease and confidence in agencies. 

There are three government departments he needs to speak with. Regarding support available to the Council, Richard has requested a meeting with Sir Stephen Timms (Department for Work and Pensions), and will be asking what the regulatory powers are of the HSE and the powers the HSE has for enforcement once the identification of a natural gas source has been made.  

Richard will be speaking with Michael Shanks (Minister in the Department of Energy), to advise him this incident has occurred and has this ever occurred again. We hope to understand the regulations that affect the rights of people to drill 100 meters down in their garden next to other gardens. 

Questions raised

Question: Did the company ‘botch it’ the first time, cutting corners to save time and money?

Answer: (HSE) The gas was venting in a safe manner, we were told the gas levels are fine and there were no problems and a permanent solution was being sought. 

Question: Fireworks have been mentioned and we have had no comment on them during this meeting, are they a risk?

Answer: (Fire and Rescue Service) Fireworks are an ignition source, the levels of gas at Cleat Hill are constantly fluctuating. By Tuesday 5 November, we hope to have a resolution on how the gas is leaking. We are putting out communications about the use of fireworks and will work with HSE to put controls in place around the area. Given the level of gas readings, it is a small risk. Craig (Bedford Borough Council) advised that the local authority should be informed of larger events, and will share the advise from the Fire Service. 

Question: The presentation mentioned that HSE removed a drill bit, was it left there from July?

Answer: (HSE) I was referring to the drill bit which is currently in the hole at 66 meters, when removing the drill bit when the gas is back into the picket and controlled by the mud, the drilling company will retract the drill bit and rebuild with the packer at the end of that. That is what I was referring to. One thing from the original incident we have the original kit that was on the borehole, and we may be able to analyse that. 

Question: A lot of us trying to make decisions about accommodation, medical support over the next weeks/months. The presentation is useful in terms of what needs to be done, but it would be useful to understand how long we should plan to be away from our homes.

Answer: (HSE) Over the next week we hope to be able to provide some more structured timelines. However, if the current plans do not go well, the timescales are unknown as we will have to go to contingencies which are not quick fixes. 

Question: Maintaining a Police presence, are the private security patrols for those properties backing onto the golf course still in place?

Answer: (Police) Yes, still there and will continue until you are back in your properties. 

Question: There is a brook that backs onto Beds County Council yard. What protection have we got with kids going up and down that brook who could come straight over the fence, as there is currently no protection there?

Answer: (Police) We will get it checked and looked at. 

Question: We were asked to leave our keys with the LRF, and that they would leave the keys in the doors. Why is this needed?

Answer: (Police) Chief Inspector Rivers – can’t answer but will find an answer and get back to you. 

What is happening to house keys for homes within the evacuation area, which have been handed by residents to the authorities?

Answer: (Police) These keys are kept by Bedfordshire Police, either in a locked vehicle or in the possession of an officer. For the keys to be used they must be formally signed for, and then signed for again when they are returned, and are only used by officials as part of our work. Responsibility for the keys sits with the Police, and we take the security of the keys – and your homes – extremely seriously.

Question: What happens next, I can’t just move back in and continue as usual.  What happens there?

Answer: (Police) All partners will have to look at the needs of each household after the technical work done by the HSE.

Question: You said responsibility was for the borehole was with the drilling company. Will they be compensating us for the negligence?  

Answer: (Laura) We are speaking to government officials and Richard is talking to government ministers. We can’t answer those questions yet, but continuing to raise them and you need answers to and for you to plan and decide what you want to do. Key question, which was asked last time, but is high on the partners agenda 

Question: What would the impact be on insurance premiums, are there examples of exclusions from similar types of events occurring?

Answer: (ABI) From an insurers prospective, where there have been claims it may be taking into consideration when renewal takes place. Engage with your insurance renewal process earlier than usual, and speak to a broker if required the importance of shopping around the market. 

Question: How much gas is there to vent out, and if the process doesn’t work and you decide to just vent it, how long will that take?

Answer: (HSE) This is for BGS to answer. In terms of what might be below the surface is being looked at, chromatography, we may never know what is down there, but we know we need to contain it and seal it off.  

Question: Is there no way they can give a quantity of gas? How come this can’t be done here?  

Answer: (HSE) It can be done, drilling other holes can determine how much is in there. It is very difficult and costly in these circumstances, the best solution is to get it back into formation in the pocket, seal it and get it back to surface. 

Formation is gas been there for thousands of years. Wood etc from the past been underwater, broken down and gone into oil or gas or a combination of the two, we have gas, been under extreme pressure for many years, been released and now need to get it back.

Question: Could it start being drilled for in years to come if there is gas down there?

Answer: (Bedford Borough Council) No - Just need regulation on this type of activity. 

Question: Any stop of any installation of ground source heat pumps in this area at this point of time? 

Answer: (HSE) We can’t stop them from a regulatory perspective. We can speak to the companies, but its permitted development, we are speaking with companies. 

(Laura) To pick up on that point, people are allowed to do permitted development, Christina has been asking around if there is a committee of installers on this type of work, and there is the Ground Source Heat Pump Association, there is quite a lot of things we are doing. Taking away permitted development right is not something we can do.  

Question: When the borehole was blocked it prevented the gas escaping vertically and it moved horizontally.  You are talking about sealing the gas off, what about the gas escaped horizontally will it dissipate?

Answer: (HSE) This is why BGS and Cadent are doing what they’re doing. Sub surface taking samples from around the cordon, in and around the area, and they are taking samples to determine about the gas, flow rates, etc, building up a picture of the area, the borehole has had the blockage cleared and is now freely venting, you can hear it venting. The reason for going deep is to get the seal there to prevent the gas getting into households. 

Question: Is there a methane detector for households or is this not necessary?

Answer: (HSE) my background is in coal mines.  We carried personal detectors when we needed them, you need to be competent to use them and be able to get them into areas you can’t reach. But you won’t need them. We need to get the gas back to where it belongs and its been there for thousands of years.  You can get continuous monitors, but it should not be needed in these circumstances. 

Laura – Ken Gordon is online and hopefully can come along to a future meeting and talk about the Ground Source Heat Pump Association. 

Question: Paul you asked about monitoring and were told it was safe, who was taking the readings and were they competent in the readings they were taking?

Answer: (HSE) it was a combination of the building contractor and the drilling company who are experienced in talking the readings. Cadent were doing some readings. The investigation will deal in a lot more detail with this. 

Question: HSE and BGS were going to put a camera down drill hole and I guess that’s not possible any more presuming when you put the bung down it will be more difficult to determine where it needs to go and so adds risk to the solution.

Answer: (HSE) Valid point, the camera solution may not be available to us but doesn’t stop the operation going forward, as drill is going through it is doing a clean out run the depth can be worked out from the number of drill rods little room for error, also from the logs done previously from when the hole was first bored there is more information for where we need to position the plug. 

Question: Partial blockage of the abandoned borehole, it was closed so couldn't look down it.  Any consideration given to the possible risk of rain fall conditions changing the integrity of the borehole?

Answer: (HSE) Determined by investigation, I won’t speculate on the answer. 

Question: Do we need to advise the insurers that our houses are empty?

Answer: (ABI) Get in contact with your insurer to make them aware of the situation, case by case basis and see what support is available. Chris advised that he can come back with any more specific information, but would recommend speaking to insurer. 

Question: We won’t have heating on, burst pipes can occur, where do we stand with insurance, will be non and void?

Answer: (ABI) Should be covered but I can provide more information on how that will be treated, I will ask that question and revert. 

Question: Are we able to follow up on the Q and As from last week?  Be helpful to have the questions on an excel spreadsheet, all we are doing is duplicating but we need to see what questions have been answered.

Answer: (Laura) Yes this is possible. 

Question: Borehole not dug for exploration of oil or gas, all blow outs should be reported to HSE immediately, do you know when that happened?

Answer: (HSE) Yes, it was reported on the incident date, local resilience forums were brought together and within 24 hours the LRF contacted myself/HSE for advice and support I attended strategic demand group and RIDDOR which a blow-out is one of those was reported.  
the drilling done was with necessary equipment to deal with anything encountered.  Gas was unexpected and they didn’t have the equipment available to deal with it. Safest way was to vent it and obtain the required equipment. 

Question: Have any companies with experience been approached?

Answer: (HSE) Yes

Question: To point out shallow gas is considered dangerous.

Answer: (HSE) No hydrogen sulphide was in there, but shallow gas is a consideration for drilling these type of holes. Contractor obtains information from British Geological Society before commencing operations. 

Question: Was the British Geological Society involved from July? 

Answer: (HSE) The BGS were measuring soil from July they were taking a probe and moving around to get readings, now have a bespoke arrangement working well. 

Question: We have to go to a different insurer that specialises in this, and my worry is this maybe difficult as this is a specific type of insurance for leaving the house for more than 30 days. 

Answer: (ABI) Happy to follow up. 

Question: When you are considering borehole drilling and the material used, is there any consideration as to whether you fully line the hole or in this case a few meters or feet.  This seems critical as this must have had some effect in terms of the material it is going through. 

Answer: (HSE) Short answer is the most exposed piece is at the top pipe down 3 or 4 meters, if more fragile and broke up more material down and geothermal holes it is open hole and then polyethylene pipe run down the hole then filled with peat gravel. If immediate things happening now proved to be unsuccessful.

Question: Obviously once investigations are finished does this get registered with land registry?

Answer: (Laura) We are going to have to take this back and speak to our land charges team and get further advice, log question.  

 

Meeting held at St Mark’s Church and Community Centre.

Panel

• Chair (Bedford Borough Council Chief Executive) – Laura Church 
• Assistant Chief Fire Officer Jim Davies
• Fire Deputy Silver - Rob Hulatt
• British Geological Survey – Doctor Jonathan Chambers 
• Health and Safety Executive - Paul Bradley
• Bedford Borough Council - Craig Austin
• Bedfordshire Police - Chief Superintendent David Boyle

Laura Church opened the meeting and reiterated that the Council’s key priority is first and foremost about residents’ safety. Laura noted that the Council remains in its ‘response stage’ and that this meeting was a follow up to Monday’s meeting, as residents’ expressed the importance of them understanding more the situation and ongoing response. 

The slides presented can be seen here (PDF).

Questions raised

Question: It was mentioned that there was a blockage that could be a reason for the fire, could you please explain the difference between a blockage and a bung?

Answer: (HSE) What our initial thoughts are and we've yet to prove this, is that a lot of the rainfall and the severe weather that we've had of late may have washed away and blocked partially the borehole near the top because it's an open borehole and it is not lined in any way, so it is subject to the elements and erosion. So that's the initial line of inquiry that we're pursuing. As we go through and drill through and prove that this is the case or isn't the case, or if there's any other blockage, then that will help us to get down to the bottom of the borehole and put in place a bung or a packer, a plug right at the point where it needs to be to seal off gas migration.

When the packer is sealed will then allow us to cement all the way back up to surface and seal off the borehole permanently and prevent any gas migration. Currently, because of the make up of the strata in that first part, it allows the gas to percolate around the blockage and the blockage is not a full blockage. It's partial because we're getting some gas past it and that's the first thing that the drilling contractors need to address. 

Question: Is it natural gas that caused the explosion or the mains gas?

Answer: (HSE) Yes, it's natural gas from this pocket of gas that is approximately 103 metres underground and it is naturally occurring gas. The majority of it is methane, there are some impurities in it. What we do need to do is let it vent to atmosphere, so it's diluted and this blockage has then caused an uncontrolled migration of gas into the residential areas and that is we believe as a consequence of the collapse of the borehole at this -10.7 metre mark.

Question: There is farmland down the road with lots of methane, is this linked?

Answer: (Laura) We will need some more time to look into that further, with support from the British Geological Survey. 

(Geological Survey) The gas monitoring being undertaken by the British Geological survey at the moment is focused on the cordoned area, close to the borehole and  some of this work is being extended beyond the cordon to get a better understanding of how the soil gas varies naturally within the broader area. That information will take a little while to come through.

Question: This blockage at the top of the borehole, could it be 8 and half metres of concrete put down by the builder, which we have been told was done with HSE’s authority?

Answer: (HSE) It was an attempt to fill the bore hole with a foam plug and the foam plug had cement on it, but it didn't hold and it wasn't secure and it came back out of the well. We know that since that point, since it came back out of the well, the gas levels were still dropping. The vent stack system was working adequately and the gas was being diluted to atmosphere. Our initial line of inquiry is to find out if this blockage at -10.7 metres is caused by water rainfall and soil ingress that has caused a partial blockage. There may be more further down the well and there is the possibility that there's still some cement or concrete in there. We're not ruling that out and that's why we need to get the drill rig and the drill rods down to the bottom of the borehole. We will need to prove it is clear, clean it, ream it and then run the camera through the system so that we know exactly where to set the plug and the right area that the strata to get the plug to give it the best chance of expanding, gripping, sealing and being able to test its integrity and then properly cement the borehole to surface.

Question: We are thinking about our sense of safety when we move back to our property and if HSE guidance was given for the original approach, what kind of security should we have with this new approach being taken, that we will be safe when we move back. There will be changes in the soil, how do we know that environmental conditions such as heavy rainfall will cause this to happen again? What legislation and who gives consent for drilling a 103 metres below surface?

Answer: (HSE) The original intention for abandoning this borehole was to use the method that's been deployed now, however, there was a five week lead time to get this inflatable packer from Belgium to the site. 

The first attempt was something that the previous drilling company attempted because the gas levels had dropped to a reasonable level, so it didn't work. It was an initial attempt and they had to revert to the original plan, which was to put the packer in and cement to surface. We are reasonably confident, you can never be 100% in these things and we have contingency arrangements in in case of that and those contingency arrangements are yet to be determined with the full extent of what might need to be done. It is proven technology, this is used in offshore and onshore oil and gas abandonment of wells, proprietary oil and gas wells, 

In terms of future work and future legislation, geothermal is not new technology, but it's utilisation and deployment is increasing and we are currently liaising with the government ministers and the Department for Energy and Net Zero transmission on what the future policy and arrangements look like.

The packer is the base to the cement, so it's the cement that does the sealing off arrangements. There is the confidence that's what we utilise for oil and gas abandonment and permanent sealing of the bore hole.

Question: We live just two doors down and noticed flames coming from the house, not the borehole. How did this occur?

Answer: (Fire Service) The gas present in the borehole is in a highly concentrated form and is too rich and not flammable. Once it disperses into the air, it becomes too lean and diluted to ignite. One of the working theories is that however the gas infiltrated the house, then a combustible mixture with air can form within a structure. If an ignition source is present, this mixture can ignite, which explains why the house caught fire while the borehole remained unaffected

Question:  Who allowed the work to resume at the site last week. Were the British Geological Survey involved from outset in July? Who was responsible for measuring the gas from 2 July up until the explosion? 

Answer: (Laura) There are differing opinions around this, and the investigation is ongoing. 

(HSE) No one should be speculating on cement being down the borehole, the investigation is ongoing with that, we need to run this rig through it and prove or disprove that conjecture. We also need to make sure it's done in a safe manner and under the careful from the all of the agencies and it's been done in a detailed and controlled way by competent contractors. We don't permit or prevent people from doing work unless it's dangerous. These circumstances are still under investigation, so we cannot give a definitive answer.

In regard to monitoring from July onwards it was being monitored continuously, actually at the vent stack where the gas was coming out into the atmosphere and making sure that the limits of methane were safe and that didn't change right up until the severe weather events and then the borehole becoming blocked and the monitoring was still there. This included in the resident’s house and we need to go through that in fine detail to understand what the causation is. 

The levels were being monitored by the building contractor and their drilling staff, their contracting staff, at the source of emission both in the household and at the vent stack.

Question: When we were talking about this method, what do you mean by “reasonably confident”? If this all goes to plan, what kind of timeframes are we looking at?

Answer: (HSE) My reasonable confidence is based on things can go wrong. This is not fallible and there are circumstances where, for example, the packer because it's an inflatable packer, might not hold securely in the first instance. We take the controlled step, making sure it's drilled through properly, making sure it's clear, determining what the nature of the strata as this give us much more confidence. Hopefully tomorrow, 8am, the rig crew will be setting up working on the surface operation there with a view to moving through the borehole, clearing it, getting the packer into site, inflating it, testing its integrity and then beginning the cementing operations. In 24-48 hours we will be able to give a more confident answer about the timelines and if it does hold securely and the integrity is there, it could be a relatively quick turn around. We don’t want to build people's hopes up and give false promises, by Monday we will have a better picture and be able to give more accurate information.

Question: The drilling is quite industrial, were the BGS consulted prior to drilling as the natural limescale acts as a cap, was there consultation prior to think that this was an appropriate place to go drilling?

Answer: (BGS) For this type of hole, BGS is not engaged with. BGS is not a regulator.   

Question: How can this type of drilling go ahead in a residential area? 

Answer: (BGS) Drilling contractors come to us because we hold data but there’s no requirement to consult to us and BGS are not officially involved in a regulatory capacity.

(HSE) The BGS information is freely available to people and our expectation is that they look at historic information available and determine what control measures need to go in place. Geothermal is slightly different but using all the information available, including offset data. It’s not that it can’t be done, we don't know the full causes yet, but we will determine that through the course of this investigation.

Mayor Tom Wootton – I wrote to the Chief Planner and you don’t need permission. We’ve been in conversation and will be writing to government and ministers to investigate

Question: With this type of drilling are HSE involved from start or when something goes wrong? 

Answer: (HSE) When it is former mining, we’re notified but if it is in a non-mining it’s not mandatory reporting. In circumstances where we know that there could be issues we've been  talking to drilling engineers, drilling companies along with the coal authority, along with the British Drilling Association to get the message out about geothermal before this incident about due diligence that needs to be done and the expectations until government policy is finalised and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero policy is finalised and the regulatory approach has been agreed to do their proper due diligence.

Question: Living 80m away, was my house at risk that I could have blown up? 

Answer: (Fire Service) We are still investigating the explosion, right now we can’t confirm if it was due to the build up of gas. There is gas in the ground and there are elevated readings in other houses, when there are elevated readings in an confined space, then there is a risk of explosion. 

Question: HSE were involved in July, did you make a decision that builder was competent to take readings without supervision? 

Answer: (HSE) We were not informed of the readings, and I cannot comment on competency as it’s part of the ongoing investigation.  

Question: Builders had to be MSC certified (micro-generated certification scheme) registered to carry out this drilling. There’s obviously a standard they haven’t complied with.  

Answer: (Laura) we will need to take that away to look into further.

(Police) There is an investigation ongoing, the coroner here will asks a lot of questions, and we can give you the guarantee it will be thorough, open and transparent investigation. This will be a matter of public record. 

Question: If we have reasonable confidence for this new intervention to be successful, why wouldn’t that have been implemented following the initial incident? 

Answer: (HSE) In July the intention was to do this repair and use this method, however there was a delay in procurement of the packer from Belgium, which had a waiting time.  

Question: What plans there are post this operation for monitoring? 

Answer: (HSE) This is not for myself, it is more likely an Environmental Agency. We are happy to support in any way and make any recommendations. 

Question: Do we know categorically that Nicholls Borehole had a full geo survey in place? 

Answer: (HSE) This is one for the investigation. 

Question: I’ve had interface with Mick Hewitt and site visits and said he understands that 8mc of concrete to pour that failed. I think this was a lot deeper. Is that your understanding? 

Answer: (HSE) The vent stack did release the gas in a controlled manner so we do not believe at this point in time and we could be proven wrong that it is not necessarily a cement or concrete that's causing the blockage, so that is why we need to do the work to get a definitive answer. 

Question: Once you get to the bottom, how long do you leave the integrity testing before you put concrete/pressure grout in? 

Answer: (HSE) Ideally, we would leave it as long as possible and in terms of integrity of the packer it can be tested very quickly, but in interest of getting people back into home safely and quickly, it will be reviewed at technical committee level. This could be 24 hours but no full decision been made yet.  

Question: Will there be full written guarantees given to residents? This could affect house sales. 

Answer: (Laura) This will need to take this way to look into further.  

(Richard Fuller) These are the sort of things I will follow up on. 

Question: How do we know we are ever going to be safe in our own homes? What guarantees are you going to give so that we won’t be looking over our shoulders every single day? 

Answer: (Laura) This ties in with the themes of a lot of questions this evening. We can’t answer that tonight but we are aware that is a big concern.  Residents do need to have that clarity, so there is the investigation and we need to look into the legislation and some of the discussions with Richard Fuller MP around asking questions in government departments.

Question: It was never monitored daily? So how can you guarantee that once the intervention is put in place? 

Answer: (Laura) As we move through with plan and work that’s being done, we’ll need to agree with the right agencies what the monitoring will look like ongoing, but we know there will be a need for ongoing monitoring. We can’t answer this now.  

Question: If it’s not successful, what will happen with our homes? Will the government buy them? 

Answer: (Richard Fuller) I will be following these up, so unfortunately do not have an answer now.

Question: There are cavities with gas underground, could the explosion disturb any of these other cavities and if the gas is released, is there likelihood of a sinkhole happening?

Answer: (BGS) In terms of issues of safety in the future, I would need to defer to the HSE and other.

The geological setting, there is clay near the surface and we have some thickness of interbedded material, in the region of 100m. There is indication that we have a change of material, it could be forming a caping type function. In terms of the base of the hole, we need more information, we don’t know the nature of the material it could be limestone. We could have gas in fractures and joints in the rock.   

We will continue to provide support and advice to agencies.  

Question: When it’s all completed will it raise its head on future sales of houses? 

Answer: (Laura) One of the organisation we think it would be helpful to have at a future meeting is the Association of Insurers, for them to give that advice on this.  

(Richard Fuller) Between 10am- 12noon on Saturday I will be at church to talk with residents and you can ask broader questions, unfortunately I am not available on Monday.  Email richard.fuller.mp@parliament.uk.

Question: Can we go back to the property for 10/20 mins? Been told LEL prone to explosion.  

Answer: (Craig Austin, Director of Environment, Bedford Borough Council) We don’t know this answer without assessment being made. There are more additional needs we need to address for you. Safe system will rely on certain gas levels, so if you can’t go in we will do what we can to support you.  

(Police) As a member of Local Resilience Forum, we have a responsibility to help the community to recover, and to help you the trauma you’ve been through. We can arrange counselling.

Question: Possible rear access to certain properties for those who are outside the 100m cordon? 

Answer: (Craig Austin) This is why we have the liaison officers, they will be able to look at that and look at it individually. 

Question: Can we not monitor the gas ourselves in our home with a store bought monitor? 

Answer: The fire service is using a type of gas monitor to measure methane levels. When within a particular range, the properties of the gas are highly flammable and the nature of this natural gas release is sporadic and unpredictable. As such, relying on the monitoring of this through human intervention, is reliant on measuring it in the right place and at the right time in those sporadic periods. This is why measuring it using traditional methods, like a smoke alarm type of monitor or a commercially available monitor, is less effective.  

Question: For the residents across the road, with this 100m cordon in place, how do we know gas isn’t going further? 

Answer: (Fire Service) the 100m was an initial cordon based on emergency response guidance. Since then, ground and air monitoring has taken place and has substantiated that 100m was approximately correct and includes safety precautions. We will continue to monitor to ensure it is correct

Question: (To Richard Fuller) To what level are you going to take this?

Answer: (Richard Fuller) There will be a proper investigation and there are issues I want to investigate such as what was the circumstances that permitted this to take place in the 1st place. At this stage we should be fair and supportive to the efforts.

It is very important that we don't work on assumptions, things we hear and this is one of the reasons why I want to have the drop in surgery on Saturday while it is still fresh in everyone's minds for me to be able to collect all of your observations and thoughts about what went on before and particularly what happened on the day.