Salcombe Town Council has issued an urgent appeal to second home owners, key holders of empty properties and holiday homes to help speed up the restoration of gas supplies following the recent outage.

The council is asking residents to check whether there are holiday or unoccupied homes in their road that may not yet have been registered with Wales & West Utilities.

Gas supplies cannot be fully restored until the number of unregistered properties in Salcombe is reduced.

At present, around 200 homes in the town remain unregistered. Wales & West Utilities has said this figure must be brought down to 100 as gas supplies cannot be fully restored until this happens.

Residents who can help are being asked to contact property owners and encourage them to register. Anyone who holds keys for an empty property is also urged to register the address on the owner’s behalf.

Registration can be completed by calling Wales & West Utilities on 0800 912 2999.

The council said action taken today could make a significant difference in restoring gas supplies to the wider community.