Looking back... Call for tighter control on sale of bottled gas in region

An Alliance councillor from Carrick called for tighter controls on the sale of bottled gas in the Province in April 1980.

Sean Neeson said he was concerned with the increase in the number of retail outlets selling the gas and the relative inexperience, he claimed, of the traders handling it.

He added that although some safeguards were being enforced, they were not nearly tough enough.

He said: “The law is not nearly as stringent or as strictly enforced as in the rest of the UK, despite Northern Ireland’s much greater consumption of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) per head of the population.”

He said he understood that very stringent precautions were taken at large distribution depots and with the bulk road tankers, but he added that his main concern lay with the massive expansion of retail outlets throughout the Provinceselling the commodity.

“It would seem there are no limits to the type of premises which the major distributors consider suitable for the sale of LPG.

“The sale and maintenance of this highly dangerous commodity is left in the hands of people with little or no experience in dealing with it,” he added.