WORK to replace a vital and leaking gas main between Worcester and Malvern could start as early as this month.

National Grid is in talks with Worcestershire County Council to start work on the medium pressure main this month after another winter of leaks in Bastonford, near Powick.

Villagers have become accustomed to the smell of gas leaking out of the 80-year-old main and have campaigned for several years to get it replaced.

Mike Pearman, Powick parish councillor and Bastonford resident, said: “I have never seen so many gas vans there in my life. There must be four or five big holes now and they are really close to people’s houses. There are two no smoking signs outside a smoker’s house.

“As you walk from Bastonford up to the Crown, you can smell gas. You smell gas all the way along it. The problem is there are eight-foot-long pipes which shrink in the winter .”

National Grid has decided to start the work in Bastonford and Powick, before moving to Malvern and working towards Worcester. Councillor Tom Wells, who has backed the villagers in their campaign, said: “Obviously, there would be little point in addressing just one section of the line.

“It just so happens people in Bastonford can smell it more than anywhere else.”

A spokesman for National Grid said: “We have had quite a few problems with the stretch of main which runs near to Powick. It is part of a 9km medium pressure main which we will replace. There are also some low pressure pipes which we are going to do.

“The final details of the scheme have still to be agreed with the council, but what we are hoping to do is to start the job in February.

“It was planned anyway, but we hope to bring it forward by a few months.”

But even if they manage to bring the work forward, it will still take until October to complete – and some of it will affect the roads between Malvern and Worcester.

“A lot of the route near Malvern goes through farmland but once we get back up to Powick we will need to manage the traffic,” said the spokesman.

An open meeting on the work will take place on Monday at 6pm at Powick Village Hall.