Burst leaves Barbara without water for THREE weeks

Barbara Grunwell’s council home was a victim of the cold snap with pipes freezing in the sub-zero temperatures.

Officials have been out to her Alma Road house in Rotherham twice since the problems first started on Christmas Eve.

But this week, Mrs Grunwell (75) was still having to carry water upstairs to wash and flush the toilet.

She said: “This was supposed to be an emergency. The last time they came out to me was a week last Tuesday and said they would be back within a couple of days but never did.

“First of all the pipes were frozen, so I had no water at all over Christmas. They’ve been out twice since in total and the second time said the problem was underground.

“The service I’ve had has been nowhere near good enough. I can’t believe so much time went by with me still waiting.”

A spokesman for Morrison, which maintains 2010 Rotherham Ltd homes, said: “The situation faced by Mrs Grunwell over the past few weeks was caused by an underground water pipe to the property becoming frozen.”

Morrison lagged the pipe on December 8 in a bid to thaw the pipe and advised Mrs Grunwell to contact Yorkshire Water.

But despite her calling Yorkshire Water before Christmas, she was not told until January 1 that it was not their responsibility, Morrison said.

When contacted again last week, Morrison workers returned to the house and identified a burst pipe. The repair was finally carried out on Wednesday and a Morrison officer has visited Mrs Grunwell to apologise.