We have been receiving a larger than usual number of calls from customers in and around the Billingham and Wynyard areas of Teesside, about a smell that people are concerned is natural gas.

The safety of our customers is our priority and our rapid response engineers are investigating each and every report and as yet we have not found any evidence of an issue on the gas network that could have caused this.

We do get incidents like this from time to time. In the past, we have traced it to things like factory discharges, aviation fuel, smells from docks activity, and many other reasons.

As always, if you smell gas, please call the National Gas Emergency Service immediately on 0800 111 999. This line is in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week.