RESIDENTS living in a Shotley street are facing a dry Christmas because of a row over who should fix a broken water pipe.Six homes in Barrack Row have been affected by a lack of running water because of a problem with the pipe underneath their homes - but Anglian Water will not fix it because the company claims it is the residents' responsibility rather than theirs.

RESIDENTS living in a Shotley street are facing a dry Christmas because of a row over who should fix a broken water pipe.

Six homes in Barrack Row have been affected by a lack of running water because of a problem with the pipe underneath their homes - but Anglian Water will not fix it because the company claims it is the residents' responsibility rather than theirs.

Alan Wearing, 26, who lives in one of the houses with his girlfriend, Emma Weeding, 25, said the situation was horrendous. He said that although the work is now likely to be paid for by the insurance company of one of the other residents, it is unlikely that the problem will be fixed before the New Year.

He said: “We've got one tap working in the kitchen with a small amount of water just dribbling out. We have to fill the bowl up there to go to the toilet. There's no shower, no hot water.

“We've been going round to visit our family for showers.

“It can't continue. It's been a nightmare. We were going to have people over for Christmas but we can't do that.”

He said they will now go to his girlfriend's father's house for Christmas but that an added problem was that the kitchen floor was now damp due to the leak underneath the house.

The problem was first noticed on Friday, December 12, and Anglian Water came to look at the problem.

However the firm have refused to mend the pipe because it is owned by the residents rather than Anglian Water.

Mr Wearing, who has lived at the house for two-and-a-half years, said: “They said the pipe that leads into our house is our responsibility.

“As it goes up the road each person is losing more and more pressure.

“I'm guessing there is a leak; it runs under everyone's kitchen so to get to it everyone's kitchen would need to be ripped up.”

The work is expected to cost up to £6,000.

A spokesman for Anglian Water said: “We do help where we can but because the pipe runs underneath the houses, it's the customers' responsibility.”

Should customers have to fork out for water main repairs? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk