ELDERLY tenants of flats in Masham have been assured they will be compensated for paying extra to keep warm while a local authority struggled to find a spare part for repairs to the ageing heating system.

Questions are being asked about the 31-year-old gas heating system at Maple Creek flats after it was out of action for six days because of a serious fault last Thursday which, it is understood, affected the control panel.

Harrogate Borough Council provided electric convector heaters for each flat until the problem was remedied.

The convectors have had to be run at residents' own expense, however, and they were worried about the extra costs which would be incurred in trying to keep warm during the cold snap.

Maple Creek has 27 flats but at present there are about 20 residents. Many are aged over 90 and some are housebound.

Engineers finally arrived with the spare part on Wednesday but it was found that it did not immediately solve the problem. Alan Jenks, assistant housing director at the borough council, said yesterday that efforts would continue and it was hoped to have the heating system reinstated as soon as possible.

One resident said: "It has been pretty miserable over the past few days but the council has done its best to try to keep us warm." She said tenants had been told they would compensated for extra expense in using the convector heaters.

Masham parish councillor Tom Mould said: "The main question, no matter how long or short a period a system has been in place, is whether the borough council has a contingency plan with knowledge of where spare parts are available.

"They don't need to buy in advance but if they know where parts can be got never again does a community like that have to go the best part of a week in very threatening weather in such a situation.

"A new system can break down just as easily as an old one, but the age of this heating system and the maintenance it has had concerns me. There is no way any credible landlord would be working with an elderly, creaking heating system. A new one would be more efficient.

"We need Maple Creek and it is high time the borough council did some serious modernisation to bring things much more in line with what people could expect.

"It is only fair that residents should be compensated for the extra cost of using the fan heaters but it is sad that they should have had to worry about it at this time of year."

Mr Jenks said yesterday: "The system is quite an old one and we have had some problems in finding the relevant part. We have now got one but it does not seem to have solved the problem and engineers are still working on site.

"We put electric fan heaters in the flats and the common room. These are more expensive than gas heating but this was the only system available to us to make sure residents still had some heat. We will make sure residents are compensated for their use.

"The problem is the age of the heating system, which serves the whole scheme at Maple Creek. This type of system is not made any more.

"Normally we would be looking to see if we could replace the system, but we are considering the future of Maple Creek and are obviously reluctant to do anything before a decision is made."