RESIDENTS of a district park home complex – many of them elderly – were left struggling for water as temperatures soared at the weekend.

The taps ran dry at Buckingham Orchard, Chudleigh Knighton, on Friday leaving people in the 70 properties facing an uncomfortable weekend.

The site and its pipe network are privately owned and it was only the kindness of neighbours who fetched supplies and offered to fill bottles that prevented a problem from becoming a crisis.