UNITED Utilities has blamed Rossendale Council for tenants of a sheltered housing scheme having their water bills doubled.

Half of the bedsits at council-owned Underbank House, off Burnley Road, Bacup, have been converted into flats with integral bathrooms.

This has resulted in the space being doubled -- and the water bill has also been doubled.

Rossendale and Darwen MP Janet Anderson has taken up the plight of the tenants who found their bills of nearly £120 rocketed to £205, and one increased to nearly £300.

In a letter to the MP the customer services director of United Utilities says: "The situation at Underbank House has been created by Rossendale Council, who carried out developments at the property without regard to our requirement that they should have water meters fitted at the redeveloped housing units.

"When developments like this are carried out, and water meters are not fitted, we must find an alternative means by which to charge until the developer or owner complies with our requirements.

"In the case of Underbank House, where larger flats have been created in each case by merging two flats into one, we are assessing charges on the basis of combining the two previous rateable values.

"This is a temporary requirement and will continue until the owners or developers comply with out requirements."

At the last Rossendale Council meeting, councillors were told that to fit meters to the property would require extra pipework inside the building, and a further report on the matter is to be sent to the next health and housing committee.

The letter from United Utilities said: "We are not prepared to reduce the charges of the tenants at this moment in time."

Mrs Anderson said she had been told that United Utilities was to have a meeting with housing officer David Taylor.

She said: "I hope then this issue can be resolved. I think it is clear from what we now know that the council should have realised at the time of the conversion of these flats was first proposed that they needed to have something to make sue the water supply could be dealt with. Negligence on their part has meant that the tenants have been put through a lot of inconvenience and distress and I hope the council will realise this when it is discussed at the next meeting."

Several of the residents who still live in bedsits have refused to have the work carried out.

Rossendale Council is set to discuss the matter again.