THE brother of a disabled woman cannot understand why emergency alarms in her council-owned bungalow did not work when they were needed.

Dino Reardon says his sister, Patricia, a stroke victim, rang him in desperation on Saturday evening when a burst pipe began to flood her kitchen.

Patricia, who has lived at Broughton Grove, Skipton, since May, could not reach the stoptap to turn the water off because of her limited mobility.

Her brother was the first person she thought of to help her.

He went round and managed to turn the water off, but when he tested the emergency alarms, none of them worked. They should alert a warden system based in the Pendle area when activated.

"I went to the bungalow next door and they didn't work either," said Mr Reardon.

He claims that he phoned the 24-hour emergency number which locates a warden in the area and the woman who answered said she knew the alarms were not working.

Mr Reardon said his main concern was the wellbeing of his sister, who was left with no water and no heating for a while over the weekend.

"I think it's disgraceful. How are the people who live in these houses supposed to get in touch with someone in an emergency? What are the alarms for if they don't work?" he said.

David Allison, housing manager with Craven District Council, said he had not been informed the alarms were not working, and would have arranged for their repair immediately if it had been brought to the district council's attention.

"Had I been informed they were faulty we would have done something about it. They are there as a safety measure for the residents and we would certainly have investigated the failure if we have known about it," he said.

He added that the alarm system was repaired as soon as possible after the fault was reported and was now in working order. But he also said he couldn't understand why no one had reported it sooner.

He added that the system which was quite old was currently being replaced with a brand new system.

Mr Allison said that he was sorry Miss Reardon had had problems with the water system, but added that a council workman was looking at it within an hour of being alerted on Saturday evening.

A plumber was subsequently located who went along on Monday.

He was unable to replace the faulty pressure-reducing valve immediately, but effected a repair and arranged to call back as soon as possible with a new part to make the plumbing good.

Mr Allison added: "Miss Reardon has made a claim for damage caused and we will submit a report as soon as possible to council insurers."