DISGUSTED residents in Broomhill forced to pay a 115 per cent hike in their heating bills were left in the cold and with no hot water when the biomass system broke down.

Five hundred local people who rely on the communal biomass boiler system in the estate were unable to switch it on when temperatures unseasonably dropped at the weekend.

River Clyde Homes are alleged to have blamed the crash on too many people turning their heating on at the same time.

It comes only weeks after residents walked out of a public meeting with RCH over the 'shocking' rise in bills which has left many people unable to afford to pay to heat their homes.

The controversial biomass boiler has been plagued with problems ever since it was introduced, with regular breakdowns initially before major repairs had to take place.

Councillor Colin Jackson, who intervened to get RCH bosses to bring the system back online, said: "The Broomhill biomass boiler that supplies heating and hot water to over 500 homes broke down again, leaving the entire scheme literally in the cold.

"I spoke to River Clyde Homes who told me AMP energy, who maintain the system for them, advised them that the system crashed because too many people turned their heating on.

"That’s proof in the pudding that it isn’t built to deal with the capacity of housing stock its plumbing through.

"If it cannot handle tenants turning heating on at the same time imagine them trying to advise us at the next meeting to turn it on in intervals to support the network. It is really laughable."

RCH said its contractors worked through the night to get the system back online within five hours of the breakdowan, at 2am.

We revealed in February how Broomhill residents, who live in one of the poorest areas of the country, were told by River Clyde Homes that the cost of their heating and hot water would rise from 7p per kilowatt hour to 18p.

Since then many Broomhill residents, including disabled people, pensioners and low income families have been forced to turn off their heating since to avoid getting into debt.

The social landlord has refused to reduce the rise.

They previously told the Tele that increasing the charges was an extremely difficult decision, and that they were supporting customers by providing a contribution to the system's running costs.

Regarding the latest breakdown, a River Clyde Homes spokesperson said: "A pressure leak was identified on Saturday June 8 at approximately 1900 on the biomass system within the Broomhill Energy Centre.

"RCH Group's service delivery partner attended the site and worked on the problem until it was resolved at 0200 on Sunday June 9.

"Unfortunately, the situation was affected by localised power cuts in the area which were beyond our control. We apologise for the inconvenience caused."