A DISABLED pensioner shivered in temperatures as low as -6 after the central heating in her new council house failed to work.

Today Age Concern described Margaret Chapman's case as unacceptable and said she could have suffered hypothermia in the three days it took to fix the problem.

And a concerned councillor called for an inquiry to discover what went wrong and prevent anything similar happening again.

Hyndburn Council has refunded the 72-year-old's first week's rent as compensation and provided her with emergency heating until the problem was solved. A spokesman for United Utilities, which provides the heating, said the company was alerted to the situation on Wednesday and acted within 24 hours.

Margaret, whose four children live and work outside the county, moved into a council house in Meadoway, Church, last weekend after doctors advised her to find new accommodation. The grandmother suffers from diabetes, severe arthritis, circulatory problems and heart problems which were aggravated climbing the steps to her previous home in Rothwell Avenue, Accrington.

She knew her new home had no internal doors to the kitchen or living room but believed it would be warm enough with heating on.

She discovered on Sunday that the heating did not work and she had only a small heater in the front room as the cold spell saw temperatures drop to -6C.

Today she thanked the Lancashire Evening Telegraph after we called in local Labour Councillor Jean Battle who arranged for two electric fan heaters to be delivered.

But the pensioner was frightened to use them much because of the running costs.

For three days Mrs Chapman had to wear a shirt, sweater, jumper and body-warmer to keep warm.

Mrs Chapman said: "My son rigged up a blanket to cover the doorways and it was bulging with the cold draft. It was freezing and I spent one night on a reclining chair in the living room wrapped in a blanket with a cup of soup in front of the gas heater."

Patrick Collister, chief officer of Age Concern Hyndburn, said: "A situation where a 72-year-old disabled lady is left alone with insufficient heating in accommodation without internal doors is totally unacceptable.

"In this case she was forced to sleep in a chair because she only had heating for a single room but because of the missing internal doors even that heat was not contained.

"Circumstances such as this could lead to hypothermia which can be caused through lack of heating and inactivity."

He added that 25,000 deaths were attributed to cold weather in England and Wales last year.

Hyndburn's Conservative group leader Coun Peter Britcliffe said: "Questions need to be asked how this situation happened. If this lady gets pneumonia they are risking having a death on their hands."

Mrs Chapman's son David, who lives and works in Edinburgh, said: "My mum said if it wasn't for the Evening Telegraph and Coun Battle she felt nothing would have been done."

Nobody from Hyndburn Council's housing department was available to comment.

But Coun Battle said the faulty heating could not have been detected before Mrs Chapman moved in and the heating was turned on. She explained: "The problem was with the Economy 7 central heating which in this case required a part which had to be ordered from the electricity suppliers. In the meantime, temporary heating was arranged as a matter of urgency."