A KEIGHLEY tenant said he had been left struggling to get by without running water due to a delayed response by his landlord.

Johnny Laidlaw, 44, of North Dean Road, said the recent freezing weather resulted in a burst water pipe at his home in the early hours of March 3.

A worker sent by his landlord, Accent Housing, switched off his water supply on the afternoon of March 5.

But Mr Laidlaw said his landlord did not restore his water until last Thursday. (March 15)

And when a contractor arrived the following day to fix the damage caused to the ceiling by the initial pipe burst, he told Mr Laidlaw he was not able to complete the job then, and would not be back to repair it until some time today. (March 22)

Mr Laidlaw said his home had been left “a shambles”, adding he could not even keep the property warm because of heat escaping from the huge hole in the ceiling.

He explained that during the 10 days he was without running water he had to resort to using large quantities of bottled water, just to flush his toilet and boil his kettle.

“Every day I had to get about 17 litres of bottled water,” he added. “I needed to go to a friend’s house to have a wash.

“What I can’t understand is that this could easily have been avoided if they’d spent just £1.40 on a bit of lagging for the pipe.

“That was all that was needed to protect it, and this would have saved them the cost of having to fix the damage.”

Mr Laidlaw, who has lived in the property for 10 years, said it was not the first time he had experienced problems with Accent Housing and his water supply.

As reported by the Keighley News in early 2011, he was then without running water for nearly seven weeks after it had to be switched off following a leak.

On that occasion Mr Laidlaw said the length of time it had taken to resolve the problem had been “ridiculous”.

He said last week’s failure to fix the damage to his ceiling was frustrating, and showed a lack of communication and basic understanding by the landlord and its contractors.

“The man who came out said he didn’t know what materials he required,” he said.

“They’d sent him in blind, so he had no idea as to how much work needed doing. It’s not just a small repair.

“So until he comes back I’m still stuck with this massive hole in my ceiling at the bottom of the stairs. It’s a real shambles.”

The Keighley News contacted Accent for comment, but had not received a response by the time the paper went to print.