Elderly residents say their heating and hot water has been off and on for more than four weeks after a water fault.

Dozens of homes at Eachill Gardens have been hit by the problem, forcing pensioners to stay in bed or resort to hot water bottles to keep warm.

Despite attempts by engineers to rectify the problems, residents say that even when repairs are made the heating and hot water soon goes off again. Social landlord Hyndburn Homes, which runs the Rishton sheltered housing complex, has apologised and is investigating.

Violet Vaughan, 90, said the situation has been ‘horrendous’.

She added: “Some of us were walking around with our winter coats and jumpers on with hot water bottles underneath.The big majority of people who live here are over 80 years old and it’s just not right that this is happening to us. People are standing in their homes and in front of you trembling. You can’t stay in bed all day.”

More than 50 residents have signed a petition demanding action.

An underground water leak is believed to be causing the problem.

Fellow resident Ida Fairey, 85, who has lived there for nine years, said it is getting beyond a joke.

She said: “You try and see the funny side, what with the recent sunny weather, but this is not a laughing matter. Sometimes it goes off at about 6am on the weekend and they can’t get any engineer to us until the Monday. We have electric showers but there’s no hot water in the taps. We have no idea how long it’s going to be like this.”

A meeting was held on Thursday last week to update tenants, and contractors are on site to try to find the leak.

Jill Scott, business manager at Hyndburn Homes, said they were ‘very sorry’ about the inconvenience.  She said: “This is a complex issue and we are working to permanently resolve it. In the meantime, we are hopeful that a temporary solution has been found and the heating is currently working. Every resident has access to heating and hot water. We have provided temporary heaters and offered additional heating to residents on request. Work is also progressing on the installation of new heating systems for each bungalow and subsequently for the main building.We are providing goodwill payments to everybody affected and are keeping customers regularly updated.”