RESIDENTS at an East Lancashire care home were left without water for more than 20 hours after a water pipe burst over the weekend.

Thousands of homes in Accrington, Church and Oswaldtwistle were left without running water after the pipe burst in a field in Blackburn Road.

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United Utilities engineers spent hours trying to repair the burst.

Staff at Barnfold Cottage Residential Home in Blackburn Road, Oswaldtwistle, said they made repeated pleas to the company to deliver a supply of bottled water for residents, but it didn’t arrive until 12.30am on Monday morning.

Staff were left to boil water delivered by friends and family members to help wash the 14 residents.

Owner Dian Webster described it as “horrendous”.

She said: “They were supposed to deliver the water and did not do it.

“They told us we could collect some from Tesco in Accrington, but there was a mile-long queue.

“We don’t have the staff to wait and the supermarkets did not open until 10.30am on Sundays.

“It was ridiculous. We rang them about six times.

“We’ve got incontinent people who need looking after. You don’t realise what you use it for until you have not got it.

“I know there was a burst pipe and these things happen, but you expect them to look after places like care homes. It should have been a priority.”

She said they delivered bottled water at about 12.30am, but by the morning the water was back on again so they are now “inundated with bottles”.

“Other homes must have been in the same position,” she said.

“These people need looking after. We have to keep them clean. We couldn’t do any washing. Normally that’s done everyday.

“We care for our residents and I think they have been treated badly.”

A United Utilities spokesman said: “We’re very sorry that these residents had such a long wait for their bottled water. We handed out 36,000 bottles over the course of Sunday, and offered proactive support for vulnerable customers who had registered their details with us.

“As soon as we realised our error, we dispatched a team to the care home with the water. We’ve since phoned the care home to apologise for being so late in reaching them.

“We appreciate that the lack of water supply made things very difficult for our customers on Sunday. All customers who were impacted by the burst will be compensated, and cheques are being issued this week.”