A COUNCIL has promised to provide a shower for a pensioner who has had to stand in a plastic bowl to wash for the last six months.

Arthritis sufferer Stan Robinson, 78, has not been able to use the bath in his council bungalow in Wheatbottom, Crook, since February.

He claims that although his GP, social services and his ward councillor supported his request for a shower, Wear Valley District Council told him they could not find the few hundred pounds the work would cost.

The council said there was a backlog of work, but that funding had now been found for a shower.

Mr Robinson, a former builder, said: "I feel I have been treated as a second-class citizen because of my age.

"It is degrading having to wash at the sink and all for the sake of a few hundred pounds. It has taken away my dignity and self respect."

Mr Robinson's daughter-in-law, Dawn Robinson, said: "Apart from his arthritis, he is perfectly healthy and active, but he feels he has been written off."

A Wear Valley District Council spokesman said: "We do have a backlog of work that needs to be carried out due to the fact the budget was cut.

"We have now managed to secure funding from elsewhere and work is under way to clear the list. We are already looking at how and when we will fit the shower."