A PENSIONER has been forced to collect drinking water from a nearby community centre because slime is oozing out of her kitchen tap.

Esmé Staniforth, who lives in a council bungalow at Elm Court, Worsbrough Bridge, says she has been trying to solve the problem with her supply for almost ten years.

The council replaced all her pipes in 2002, which made a temporary improvement, but an unidentified substance continues to drip intermittently from her tap.

Esmé said: “I felt as though I was swallowing things with my tea, but I took no notice of it. “I thought I was imagining things until I found this stuff coming out of my tap two weeks ago. “It looks like someone’s blown their nose through the tap. I’ve had enough.”

At other times, she said, a liquid which looked like blood has spewed out into her kitchen sink. In 2003, a sample of solid matter found in tap water was analysed by the council’s environmental health department and found to contain mould and a fragment of a window gnat.

An enclosed report states that her water is fit to drink and offers advice about “how to eliminate the problem you continue to have with debris coming down your tap”.

Esmé said the council will not come and look at her problem now because they have already replaced her pipes and believe the issue to be solved. None of her neighbours have experienced the problem. A spokesman said Berneslai Homes would never refuse to visit a property on a repair issue and that their records show Esmé has not contacted them about her water supply since 2002.

“We are aware that Yorkshire Water surveyed the property in 2003 and advised the tenant that there was a bio film build up around the edge of the taps, which could be removed by regular and thorough cleaning with bleach and a cloth.”

She added that an engineer would visit the property immediately.