FRAIL and elderly residents have spent Christmas being carried up and down stairs after engineers left them without a lift for a week.

Many of the 68 pensioners in the three-storey Brackendale sheltered flats suffer from arthritis but their lift broke down on Tuesday. .

An engineer from the building's owners Northern Counties housing association was called out to the premises in Albion Street, Blackburn, the same day but left saying he needed a part.

A mobile warden for the flats said another engineer attended on Christmas Eve but did not contact him to get access to the building, and left a note to say the lift would be repaired today.

The block's resident warden is off sick but cover is provided by a team of mobile wardens who can be at the building within 10 minutes of being called.

One resident, who didn't want to be named , said the lift was a lifeline for the elderly residents, who range from 60 to 90 years old. He said: "They should have contacted the mobile warden but he just left a note on the door saying he would be back the coming Monday.

"I think it's diabolical. There are some semi disabled residents, and there are two badly disabled, one who can only get about with a zimmer frame. They have had to go through pain.

"It's shocking. It's four lots of stairs if you live on the top floor and two if you live on the second. The warden comes within 10 minutes if you call him. People who are bad on their legs shouldn't be without a lift.

"One 86-year-old lady has had to be carried down by two relatives or she would have been stuck in her flat all Christmas. The laundry room is on the bottom floor so people have also had to battle with carrying bags of washing down.

"And with it being Christmas, residents have had heavy shopping bags to get up the stairs. The lift is our lifeline."

Another resident, Mary Baron, 70, said: "I live on the top floor and I have emphysema. Because I had to have half of my lung taken away I get very breathless having to climb stairs so this is terrible. I can get down the stairs but the coming back up is a nightmare. It's even worse for those that can't even get down the stairs."

A mobile warden, who didn't want to be named, said: "The lift is out of order and I am as annoyed as anyone it hasn't been fixed. All the residents have arthritis.

"They did come on Christmas Eve but because there was no warden they went away again. They only had to call me. The engineer left a note saying he would be returning on Monday but the lift has been out of order since December 23."

No-one from Northern Counties, based in Rochdale, was available for comment.