AN 81-year-old woman from Runcorn was left in hot water after a sewage pipe burst near her house.

Winnifred Birkenhead, of The Tithings, Halton Brook, has twice been forced out of her house due to the flooding.

Mrs Birkenhead noticed the first burst at about 10am on Friday, December 10, when she could not unblock the sink in her bungalow.

She was eventually left in three inches of sewage water and was forced to move in with her daughter Barbara, also of Halton Brook.

Mrs Birkenhead's home was left under water until the next evening with her 48-year-old daughter forced to stay overnight while she waited for United Utilities to arrive.

Barbara, who suffers from cancer of the spine and lungs, says she was left physically sick by the smell of the sewage and claims that her health has been affected through spending to much time in the house.

Mrs Birkenhead was eventually allowed back into her house on the Sunday, only to be forced again the following Thursday afternoon when the leak returned.

Barbara said: 'I'm disgusted with the way we have been treated. At the end of the day they have done nothing to help my mum.

'They have given her no advice on what she should do whatsoever. How can you treat a pensioner like that?'

The damage from the flood means that Mrs Birkenhead has had to throw away all the carpets and a large number of furniture units in her home and was set to have them replaced on Thursday - until the flood returned.

United Utilities will reimburse Mrs Birkenhead with £1,015 for her furniture.

A spokesman for Untied Utilities said: 'We believe there was a problem passing on the information from the initial call from Mrs Birkenhead, but as soon as we realised the problem we were out as quickly as possible.

'There was a blockage in the sewer and we had hoped we could clear the blockage and repair the sewer in a few weeks, but it looks like it was worse than we thought and that explains why there was flooding on Thursday.

'We have now cleaned out the sediments and we are confident there will be no further problems.

'We are obviously very sympathetic to Mrs Birkenhead's problem.'