COLD pensioners who say they are living in “ice boxes” will not get their heating system fixed until the summer.

Elderly residents complained that their heating was not working properly in 35 warden-controlled council flats.

Icy showers and chilly rooms have left the residents in their 80s and 90s wrapping up in blankets or huddling in the corridors to get warm.

But as Hampshire shivered in freezing temperatures at the weekend, council chiefs have revealed they cannot get the problem fixed until summer.

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Campaigners for elderly people’s rights have branded the slow response as “disgraceful” and called for action as the problem was first discovered two years ago, although is has worsened since December. One resident of Winchester’s Danemark Court is 89-year-old Violet Lipsham, who is battling breast cancer.

She said: “They can’t get anything done before the summer so I suppose we will all just have to suffer in silence.”

Fellow resident Barbara Fishlock, 85, said: “First thing in the morning and in the evenings, it is unbearable. The shower starts OK but it finishes long before it should. It’s as if someone has got the hose pipe on you.”

A letter sent to the pensioners by Winchester City Council said: “As you know we are having ongoing problems with the heating and hot water system at Danemark Court and some of you have had to use your own immersion heaters for hot water.

“Unfortunately this will have to carry on until we can fix the system permanently. We are doing everything we can to solve this problem and hope to carry out some work on the system which will start during the summer months.”

Age Concern Hampshire director Chris Perry said: “It is disgraceful. To leave people of that age in those kinds of conditions for two hours is too long let alone for two years and let alone for yet another three months. “The council has got to get someone out there now. They obviously don’t understand how dangerous the cold can be for older people.”

The city council spokesperson says it has employed a building consultant to identify the causes of the problems in preparation for a full-scale repair of the entire heating system.

A spokesman added: “In the meantime we will continue to do everything we can to help residents and to deal with individual faults as and when they are reported.”