Thousands contact council repairs service in Leicester
Freezing weather conditions have prompted a significant rise in calls to Leicester City Council's repairs service, the authority has said.
On Monday the local authority said it received about 2,000 calls - an increase of about 1,500 on the usual number of calls per day.
Most of the requests required plumbers and gas fitters.
The council said that with the cold snap set to continue emergency cases would be prioritised.
Dave Pate, the council's director of housing services, said: "We have also brought in external contractors to help deal with the huge number of requests we've had, and extended the opening hours of our repairs call centre to 10pm.
"Owing to the massive demand for emergency repairs we won't be able to carry out planned maintenance work in the next few days, and so ask people to bear with us until the service is back to normal."
Councillor Paul Westley, the council's cabinet member for housing, added: "The team is working flat out and is trying to prioritise requests so that calls from elderly and vulnerable people are dealt with as quickly as possible."