A YORK resident who was without water for 48 hours has complained that despite promises from her water supplier she has still not been compensated.

Christina Ounsworth, 70, of Carlton Street, off Leeman Road, was left without water for nearly 48 hours during the big freeze in December, and contacted Yorkshire Water when no compensation appeared on her recent water bill.

Mrs Ounsworth said: “The woman I spoke to had no knowledge of any refunds being given out. She went to speak to her manager and came back and told me nobody was getting anything.

“It should have been made clear that we might need to apply for the compensation. We assumed that because they know which postcodes they were working on, they would probably make deductions on the bills before they came out, but we got it last Friday and there was no deduction.”

Last month, The Press reported Yorkshire Water had met with City of York Council leader Andrew Waller to discuss the impact of burst pipe problems, which affected more than 300 homes over the Christmas period.

The company confirmed payments would be made automatically to vulnerable customers, such as the elderly or pregnant, whose supplies were cut off for more than 12 hours.

Speaking then, a Yorkshire Water spokesman said: “We sympathise with what some of our customers went through, which is why we will also be making payments on application to those people who were without water for almost 12 hours as a result of problems with the pipes we look after.”

A spokeswoman for Yorkshire Water said: “We sympathise with what some of our customers went through in December as a result of the cold weather and in the case of Christina Ounsworth we will be making a payment of £40 because she was without water from what we believe to have been a problem on one of our water pipes for more than 48 hours.

“However, we are not making automatic payments to customers who were without water over the exceptionally cold spell in December. Any applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.”