A JILTED husband has been awarded more than £1,000 in compensation - after his local council moved his bitter love rival in as his next-door neighbour.

The husband was just beginning to get over the collapse of his ten-year marriage, when he discovered the man who had stolen his wife emptying a removal van to move into the house next door in Hartlepool.

To make matters worse, the proud householder had just spent more than £1,000 redecorating his council house - after taking up DIY to take his mind off being dumped.

The rival's affair with his wife had ended before he moved in next door.

But the husband found the prospect of living next to the man who seduced his spouse so intolerable, that he moved home rather than face him over the garden fence.

The loath-thy-neighbour row ended yesterday when the local government ombudsman aw-arded the ditched dad £1,600.

The watchdog concluded he had been left £1,014 out of pocket as he had decorated the house and fitted new carpets and curtains which could not be taken with him. He also complained that the tenancy was not allocated properly.

The ombudsman decided it was unlikely the new tenants should have been offered the property ahead of more deserving cases.

A council spokesman said: "In common with other local authorities, Hartlepool council assesses a person's priority for a council house using a points system.

"We do take care to make sure proper records are kept, but the system clearly did not work properly in this particular case, and as a result we have tightened our procedures."