DOZENS of elderly residents were stuck in their homes over the weekend after the two lifts broke in their high-rise flats in Blackburn.

Margaret Halleron, 75, said the fault at the 13-storey Bowland House, in Larkhill, rendered her a ‘prisoner in her own home’, as she is unable to climb up or down the 98 steps to her flat.

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Great Places Housing Group, which apologised to residents, had managed to fix one of the troublesome lifts by yesterday afternoon.

Mrs Halleron said: “The lifts both broke down on Friday and when we contacted the housing association they said someone would come tomorrow.

“Then they said the next day, but the problem was left all weekend.

“I’m only half way up and there are lot of elderly people here, and it’s 146 steps to the top, so we were all trapped in our own homes.”

She said it had been 10 years since both lifts last broke at Bowland House, which has about 80 flats, but there have been numerous occasions when one of the lifts was out of order for residents.

The buzzer system was also broken, which meant Mrs Halleron had to throw her keys out of her window so her family could enter the building.

David Wood, interim director of repairs and asset management at Great Places Housing Group, said: “We sincerely apologise to residents who have been affected by the lifts not working.

“We received a call on Friday at 5.30pm (and) an engineer attended at 6.30pm and found out the cause of the problem – a faulty valve which had caused a flood in the lift shafts.

“This water damage sub-sequently affected both lifts.

“The engineer was there for three hours trying to fix the situation and returned on Saturday to carry out further work but we had to wait until Monday morning for the lifts to dry out, and to obtain further parts to replace water-damaged components.

“Two senior supervisors were on-site all of Monday trying to sort out the problem.

“They managed to fix the lift which goes to the odd number floors and are continuing to work on the other.

Mr Wood added: “We are keeping all residents updated on progress and our housing services team are offering support to those affected."