HOMES which were left without water and heating when pipes froze in the recent icy weather took a second blow this week after pipes burst when they thawed.
Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing had to deal with seven times more plumbing inquiries than normal, while Yorkshire Water took up to 8,000 calls a day.
For Zoe Davidson of Princess Crescent, Chickenley, a frozen outside pipe meant spending four days without water for herself, seven-month-old daughter Faith and disabled fiancé Simon Walker.
The water was back on in time for Christmas, but Miss Davidson said: “It was horrible. It was my first Christmas away from my family and I wanted it to be really good.”
Miss Davidson’s home is a council house, but a spokeswoman for Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing said that Yorkshire Water was responsible for outdoor pipes.
She said: “Unfortunately, because of the extremely cold weather we’re experiencing at the moment, thousands of people in the region, including hundreds of our customers, are having similar problems with frozen pipes.”
She said that KNH took more than 700 calls about plumbing and heating last Monday, while a spokesman for Yorkshire Water said it had been taking 300 to 400 calls from the Dewsbury area every day this week.
In the cold weather before Christmas, plumber Michael Yeomans was inundated with calls to fix broken boilers.
He said: “It tends to be busy at this time of year anyway because everyone wants things done before Christmas, but with the cold weather it’s busier.”
His wife, Julia, said Mr Yeomans was also busy this week, as requests to fix burst pipes came flooding in.
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