SOME residents in Malvern Link are being forced to carry hot water in pots upstairs to their bathrooms because of a mysterious glitch in their morning water supply.

Redland Close residents have been without hot water between 7am and 8.30am on weekdays and between 8am and 9.30am on weekends since last December.

Redland Road has also been affected by the problem, which is seriously low water pressure.

Terry Warneford, of Redland Close, said: "A couple of people in the close are older and they are having to not wash until 10am in the morning. They don't like to do that, so they are putting water in kettles and pots and carrying them upstairs to their bathrooms."

Retired civil servant Eveline Blebins takes a kettle of hot water upstairs to wash with, and washes her hair over the kitchen sink.

She said: "At the weekends it's worse. I just can't have a bath. It's like the middle-ages and we are paying water rates the same as anyone else."

Mr Warneford added: "Severn Trent has now decided someone is taking water that they don't know about. Someone somewhere has stolen between 120-150,000 gallons of water so far!"

"What we are after, in Redland Close, is if anybody could give information as to who might be taking this vast quantity of water."

Severn Trent spokesman Caroline Hosie said the company was aware of the problem but couldn't say how many people it affected.

A leakage engineer was dispatched on Tuesday, she said, and will finish his investigations today (Friday).

The company has also checked valves in the system and is in the process of logging pressures.

Ms Hosie added: "We are also looking at if we could possibly bring water in from another area. We are doing what we can but unfortunately there is no quick fix."