RESIDENTS have been promised repairs will be carried out after a manhole cover blew off spewing a "fountain of sewage" down their street in York.

Clifton ward councillor Ken King stepped in after The Press reported on Monday that a manhole cover blew out in Water Lane, Clifton, during a severe thunderstorm.

Yorkshire Water has now said it was undertaking work to repair the damage and it should be complete within the fortnight.

But Coun King said he was angry with both Yorkshire Water and City of York Council for what he called "buck passing" rather than addressing the concerns of residents.

He said: "It's just simply not good enough for one of them to pass the buck to the other without taking responsibility. The whole mess needs cleaning up and quickly and then the details can be sorted out later."

On Monday last week, The Press reported how pensioner Les Marsh said children's health had been put at risk when they played in the filthy water.

In the dark, a car was damaged after it ran into the cover, which had been left tilting out of the hole.

Other drivers were at risk of a similar fate until a neighbour took her wheelie-bin out and placed it in the middle of the road in front of the hole.

Mr Marsh said the incident happened outside his home in Water Lane, Clifton, during last Thursday afternoon's storm, but exactly the same thing had happened less than two months before.

He had complained to the city council then, but was told it was no longer the local authority's responsibility.

He claimed he asked the city council then to contact whichever organisation was responsible, and it agreed to do so, but it was two weeks before anyone came and cleared detritus off the road.

Nothing appeared to have been done to stop it happening again.

"The water was pouring out like a fountain, two or three feet into the air," he said.

A council spokeswoman said the manhole was the responsibility of Yorkshire Water, and that if anyone contacted the council to report such a problem, they would be advised to contact the water company.

Coun King said: "Mr Marsh contacted me with his concerns and I am rather annoyed that it has taken me to get involved before anything was done.

"Both the council and Yorkshire Water should take the concerns of residents like this seriously when they are reported.

"I have been told that Yorkshire Water will be doing work to remove silt from the sewer and replace the manhole cover."

A spokeswoman for Yorkshire Water said: "We are doing further investigations to find out how this happened and working with our manhole suppliers to get a replacement fitted within the coming fortnight."