KIND-HEARTED donors have given £11,300 to help victims of the summer's floods.

A report produced by Wear Valley Volunteer Development Agency, in Crook, shows that individuals and other bodies gave thousands in response to a public appeal.

The agency coordinated the voluntary sector and worked with the district council to provide people with donated furniture or other household items and find out whether residents were eligible for other funds.

Victims in West Auckland received £4,700 of the crisis money and the same sum was donated to people in South Church.

There were enough donations of household goods to fill a warehouse and six rooms.

In many cases, the items were desperately needed, as 25 per cent of the 321 properties flooded had been uninsured.

The Citizens Advice Bureau secured £3,780 of aid from charities and the Soldiers Sailors Air Force Association raised £14,000 from various regiments to help ex-servicemen and women.

A spokesman for Wear Valley Volunteer Development Agency said: "We got donations from people just out of the blue, who donated maybe £100 because they lived in South Church years ago.

"We haven't ever co-ordinated anything like this before, so we hit the ground running with no prior experience of helping communities hit by floods."

The agency is now passing on its knowledge to other volunteer bureaux trying to help people hit by floods.