A SUPERMARKET has been criticised for failing to deal with flooding problems arising from the building of a store.

People in Trimdon Village are delighted with their £760,000 supermarket, which has been developed in a partnership between North Eastern and Cumbrian Co-op and Durham County Council.

The store opened last December, replacing a small Co-op convenience store. It also incorporates a village library.

But the development has caused a problem during heavy rainfall.

County councillor Paul Trippett said: "We have this massive pond that appears every time it rains and it fills with rubbish because kids float sticks in it.

"When it dries out all of the rubbish is just lying on the road and it is a massive problem. It looks absolutely horrendous and I am very disappointed.

"I've been telling them about this for months, but the store is up and running now and they do not seem interested in doing any remedial work.

"Durham County Council and Sedgefield Borough Council have bent over backwards to help this store get up and running and they have let us down badly."

A spokesman for Co-op said that the organisation was aware of the problem and was preparing to resolve it.

He said: "When the store was built the council asked us to put in a little access road next to the car park.

"Previously that was soft landscape, just grass really, and because we have put this in at the council's request the water does not run off as it used to, so it is forming quite a big pool."

"We haven't refused to deal with it. We are putting a gulley in to link with the main drainage point, so that should resolve the problem.

"That should happen in about two or three weeks time."