A COUNCIL blunder which left hundreds of elderly residents without replacement carbon monoxide detectors for their homes was last night on its way to being solved.

The Northern Echo reported on Tuesday how pensioners and disabled people living in Durham City Council-owned properties had been forced to wait several weeks for repairs to the potentially lifesaving detectors, after a shortage of parts.

The council has been accused of waiting too long to replace the devices, which are fitted as standard in warden-controlled homes and other such properties, when they reached the end of their working life.

Last night, its supplier, Honeywell SF Detection, which also supplies companies such as British Gas, said 100 new detectors were being delivered this morning, in an attempt to ease the situation.

From Friday, 100 battery back-up/sensors were also being delivered, and 100 every day after that until an order previously placed by the council for a thousand of the parts was fulfilled.

Jim Gibbons, a national sales agent for SF Detection, said there had been a delay because of a lack of printed circuit boards, a component of the battery back-up/sensor.

However, Mr Gibbons said the required parts should have been ordered by the council a year ago after a five-year guarantee expired.

He said: "The council told me they thought the detectors had been in for six years, so the parts should have been ordered a year ago. We should have been made aware that these detectors needed new parts, but we did not know.

"If we find out there is a problem, we have got to deal with it, because this is people's lives at risk.

"I understand the council has got four men standing by to do the work required straightaway."

The carbon monoxide detectors emit an audible bleeping noise and give warning of deadly carbon monoxide gas, an odourless gas which can escape from boilers and fires.

Durham County Councillor Raymond Pye said he was contacted by a resident living in a disabled bungalow in Sherburn Village who had waited weeks for a detector from the city council.

He said: "Thank you for bringing these concerns to the public's attention."

A council spokesman said: "We are trying to get this sorted as soon as we can."

Asked how quickly all the required parts and detectors would be fitted, he said: "Certainly within the next working week."