A POSTMAN and his family were forced to spend Easter apart after their gas supply was cut off.

John McSheffrey, 45, of Tolson Crescent, Dalton, and his wife Julie had to spend Easter away from their four children.

Their gas supply had been cut off on Good Friday after a leak had been found in their council home.

Mrs McSheffrey, 48, rang Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing (KNH), which manages council homes in Kirklees, on Good Friday to reconnect their gas.

But she was told KNH would be unable to send an engineer until April 7.

With no heating, John and Julie were forced to stay at John’s mother’s house.

Their two grown-up sons had to stay at their sisters’ houses.

Mr McSheffrey said: “They didn’t offer us any help.

“We had to go to my poor mum’s and our family was split up over Easter.

“The way they said they couldn’t afford to send anyone out and it was an emergency means I’m not very happy.

“We couldn’t do anything in the house.

“We’ve had to borrow a heater. We couldn’t have a bath and we had to live off takeaways. They’ve not helped one bit.”

A spokesman for KNH said: “Both KNH and Building Services, their repairs contractor, are very sorry that Mr and Mrs McSheffrey have had no gas supply over the Easter weekend.

“When we were informed of the gas leak on Good Friday we advised Mrs McSheffrey to contact Transco immediately, which is standard practice in these instances.

“After Transco had attended and capped off the gas Mrs McSheffrey contacted us again and was offered temporary heating until the gas supply could be reinstated.

“We apologise that the repair wasn’t carried out until yesterday.

“A full investigation will be carried out as to the cause of the leak and we have contacted Mr and Mrs McSheffrey to discuss their complaint”.