A NATIONAL window company has been criticised by a mother for allegedly risking the lives of her family after she was left without a working fire exit for four months.

Carol Kenrick said she was unable to open the fire exit on the ground floor of her house in Cambridge Street, Accrington.

"What happened if we had a fire? I've got a nine-year-old son, it just didn't bear thinking about," she said.

Although Safestyle, based in Newcastle, finally came round to fix her fire exit at the weekend, she said they refused to fix a gap around it because she did not report within the allotted time.

Carol, 42, who lives with her partner Glyn Fielding and their son, Reece, said her dealings with Safestyle had been a catalogue of disasters. "The initial work was done in October but the problems started in February. We had trouble with a door as well, but the fire exit was our main concern. We couldn't close it because there was an inch difference and we were open to anybody breaking in.

"I rang up Safestyle and after four weeks they came round. But they said they couldn't fix it because they didn't have the right hinge and so forced it shut. We had one appointment cancelled in April because of sickness, and as I was not prepared to lose pay and take a day off work, we were told that the only day they could come round was on Saturday, May 24.

"On that day they phoned and told me they would have to cancel because their engineer was sick. After I calmly said I would not be happy if that happened, they came round.

"There was also another problem with the work. We found a gap around the window when we took the wallpaper off to decorate, but they said because we did not report it within 28 days they cannot do anything about it."

Keith Watson, of Safestyle said: "We had an appointment to fix it on April 26 and the engineer was sick so we had to cancel all of his appointments. But it was rebooked for last Saturday and, according to our records, the work has been done to the customer's satisfaction."

Ian Tremaine, of Safestyle, said: "Unfortunately we have not repaired the gap because it was not reported within 28 days."