AN ENGLISHMAN’S home is his castle, or so the old saying goes.

You go home at night, lock the door, draw the curtains and you are as safe as houses. But are you, really?

I pose this question after several days of dealing with National Grid and its partners in the Gas Alliance.

Let me set the scene.

Several months ago, I received a letter telling me that gas main renewal work would be carried out in my neighbourhood.

We were warned there would be disruption both in terms of holes in the road and disconnections to the gas supply on two days.

But, we were assured, this would be kept to a minimum as the new plastic pipe would be inserted inside the old metal one so the number of holes needed to be dug would be far fewer than we might have expected.

But, we were warned, depending on what type of gas meter we had and where it was located, they may have to dig up some or part of our driveway.

So far, so good.

Needeless to say, our meter was the ‘wrong’ type in spite of the fact it was only installed a couple of years ago.

The result was that the nice sub-contractors working for Gas Alliance would have to cut a 4ft square hole in the middle of our concrete drive.

Obviously I wasn’t particularly happy about this but we were assured any damage would be made good and our drive would be restored to ‘similar’ condition.

Then it got worse.

The workmen couldn’t get the pipe from the mains all the way up our drive so had to cut a second hole to get to the obstruction.

All this work was carried out on a Sunday so at least we were able to see what was going on.

To be fair to the workmen, they cracked on with what they had to do and we were without gas for the absolute minimum time (just as well really as we cook with gas and heat our home with it).

The second part of the operation involved replacing the gas main in the road and connecting our new plastic pipe to the new plastic main. This took place on the Monday, which meant we were out of the house all day.

We returned in the evening to find the work had been done, our gas was back on and the holes had been filled.

And that’s where the problems start.

Now I’m no building and construction expert but to say the materials used for the repair were ‘similar’ to our driveway stretched the meaning of the word ‘similar’ to breaking point.

And even more annoyingly, the workmen seemed to fail to notice the weather we’ve been having lately and left their handiwork uncovered – just as the rain started to fall.

Let me tell you, uncovered concrete and heavy rain don’t really mix that well in terms of a pleasing aesthetic finish.

Not that aesthetics seemed to bother the local tom cat which seemed to take great delight in walking through the wet concrete, leaving its paw prints there for posterity in a feline impersonation of a movie star leaving handprints outside Hollywood’s famous Chinese theatre.

‘Discussions’ between me and the Gas Alliance are still ongoing but this started me thinking about what rights an organisation has to start cutting up your driveway or entering your home. (We had to leave a key with a neighbour while we were out).

I suppose this counts as tacit approval for the work to go ahead. And had we thrown the workmen off our property, all they would have done is disconnect us from the gas main and move on to the next house.

But gas and electricity companies do have the power to get a warrant to force entry into your home, if they see fit.

And as well as power companies, there is a whole raft of organisations and officials who can enter your property, sometimes with a warrant and sometimes without.

Obviously, the fire service can if they believe there’s a fire but so can water companies, planning and rating council officers and court bailiffs and enforcement officers.

And also on the list are housing officials; mental health officials; those responsible for control of infectious diseases and illness; pests and vermin control officers; officials with concerns about children under a number of laws and, for commercial premises, officials enforcing no smoking legislation.

This list is not exhaustive or comprehensive by any means but next time you come home from work, lock your doors and draw your curtains, just remember, your home may not be the castle you thought it was.