TRACTOR driver Bill Sinderson faces getting his kitchen refitted for the third time after his bungalow was flooded from a damaged drain.

Mr Sinderson, of Coxhoe, has been fighting for ten years to get the drain, on a nearby playing field, repaired. But he says that Lafarge Redland Aggregates, the firm that now owns the land, which was formerly a quarry, keeps promising work 'shortly'.

Earlier this week firemen pumped water from the bungalow Mr Sinderson, who works for Durham County Council, shares with 14-year-old son Colin and sister Janet Lowry.

He said: "We were flooded in June, were flooded last week and now it has happened again. The kitchen will have to come out again. It will be the third one since October last year. That's without tiles and carpets and other things.

"The next will be that no-one will insure us. I have had extensive repairs done to the bungalow through insurance. They put it down to the drains on my property but it is still happening.

"At a rough estimate, it has cost £25,000 to £30,000 to deal with."

A Lafarge Redland Aggregates spokesman said: "We fully sympathise with Mr Sinderson's plight, particularly after the extreme weather conditions.

"Consulting engineers have examined the land and come up with a scheme to improve drainage in the area. A contract is already in place for engineering works to be carried out and it should only be a matter of days before work can begin."

The firm said it had 'inherited' the site and had agreed to do the work as a 'gesture of goodwill' without admitting liability to do it.