HOUSES along a Bury road were left high-and-dry after they were hit with water and gas problems on the same day.

It is claimed work on water pipes beneath Hebburn Drive resulted in a gas leak, leaving homes without gas for two days.

United Utilities had arranged for contractors to fit a free water meter at the home of Mrs Sylvia Jones, of Hebburn Drive, on Wednesday, May 12. But while starting to fit the meter to the supply pipe underneath the footpath, a small leak was discovered. The meter could not be fitted at that time as Mrs Jones would be paying for water she was not using.

On Saturday, the leak became much worse, and she contacted United Utilities to report the fault and engineers returned to fix the problem on Monday (May 17) when the water had to be shut off.

While the contractors were working, gas pipes, also beneath the road, filled with water.

A spokesman for Transco, said: "A gas leak was caused by the pressure of the water damaging a gas pipe. A total of 56 houses were affected and Transco worked for two days to sort out the problem. People will be entitled to compensation and will need to get in touch with their gas supplier to arrange this."

However, United Utilities insisted that the pressure of the water would not have been strong enough to fracture the gas pipes. Transco were working in the area on their meters at the time.

A spokesman for United Utilities said: "We understand that gas supplies to properties in the street were also interrupted on Monday but had been restored by the time our engineer shut the water off at 1pm. We do not believe that our contractors caused any damage to the gas main or that the water pressure would have been sufficient to damage it.

"It is possible that the water leak and the work gas engineers were doing in the area fitting gas meters, may have combined to cause the problem with the gas supply."