A PREGNANT woman and her toddler son were left without heating for nearly a week through sub-zero temperatures after their oil supplier was unable to reach their home in Leighton.

Diana Harris, of Woodman Close, was left desperately trying to keep her 18-month-old son warm when the oil fired central heating ran out of fuel last Thursday.

The tanker driver carrying their vital fuel had made repeated visits to the town but refused to take his vehicle up the un-gritted Woodman Close for fear of a catastrophic accident.

Diana, who is four-months pregnant and her partner, Richard Redfern, managed to buy a couple of fan heaters and have spent the week huddled around them, clocking up a huge electricity bill, in a bid to avoid the big freeze.

"It makes me mad," she said this week. "We pay an exorbitant amount for the oil and they won't deliver. What's worse is that there has been a complete breakdown in communication and they won't tell us anything.

"Residents have been going up and down Woodman Close and the road was relatively clear by the weekend but they still wouldn't deliver.

"The whole situation has been a nightmare, really stressful and difficult, especially as we have a small son.

"There's no customer care at all. I can't believe they were prepared to leave us without heating for days on end.

"It's mental torture. I can't leave the house because once they've filled the tank someone must come in and bleed the boiler and we don't know when that is."

Richard's concerned father, Stanley, spent days fighting to restore heating to his son's home.

"Richard had to go away on business and Di was left there alone in a cold house.

It's absolutely diabolical to treat people like this".

Emo Oil general manager said that the company had been working hard in an attempt to deliver much needed heating oil supplies to its customers and despite the bad weather had maintained a reasonable service, however some tankers have struggled to reach all customers.

He said: "Unfortunately the delivery to the block of flats in question was due last Wednesday but, as a result of the terrible weather conditions at the local depot, the tanker was not able to make all the required deliveries.

"A delivery has now been made so that heating of the flats can be resumed.

"The oil business is highly dependent on the weather – the minute the temperature drops, our phone lines get very busy.

"We have therefore been incredibly busy over the last few days and our staff are having to cope with extreme circumstances.

"While we have managed to complete most of our deliveries, I must apologise to the residents of Woodman Close for any inconvenience this late delivery may have caused.

"Our depot managers are constantly monitoring the situation and trying their best to reach as many customers as possible – it is not in anyone's interests to let our customers down."