ANGLIAN Water has been “deluged” with calls from people with frozen pipes.

As the big freeze continues, the water company’s call centre received more than 2,000 calls this morning - a 150% increase on normal levels.

Most of the calls have been about customers’ own pipes which have frozen or burst, which is something Anglian Water can do nothing about.

And now the company is appealing to people with frozen pipes not to call and is offering advice on how to deal with the problem.

Spokesman John Clare said: “Please don’t call us if your pipes are frozen as unfortunately we’re not able to do anything to help you restore your water supply.

“We need to free our phone lines so we can deal with calls about the water mains and sewerage networks which are our responsibility, so we can act quickly to deal with any problems.”

Anglian Water has issued advice for people who are not sure whether they have a problem with their internal pipe work, or if there is an issue with the mains supply.

They are advised to check with neighbours to see if they’re also without water.

If they are unaffected and if the cold tap in your kitchen is still working, it is likely you have frozen pipes in your house.

However, if several adjacent houses have all lost their water supply then that is something Anglian Water needs to know, as it could mean a water mains problem.

If you have a water meter fitted to the external wall of your property, or the cold kitchen tap doesn’t work, then it is possible that your private supply pipe is frozen.