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, near Durham City, has been fighting for ten years to get the drain on a nearby playing field repaired.

He says that Lafarge Redland Aggregates, the firm that now owns the land, keeps promising work "shortly".

Earlier this week, firefighters pumped water from the three-bedroomed bungalow which the Durham County Council worker shares with 14-year-old son Colin, and sister Janet Lowry.

He said: "It is horrendous. 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 last October. At a rough estimate, it has cost £25,000 to £30,000 to deal with."

A company spokesman said: "We fully sympathise with Mr Sinderson's plight, particularly after the extreme weather conditions. A contract is in place for engineering works to be carried out to improve drainage and it should only be a matter of days before work can begin."