TENANTS who claim they are the "forgotten victims" of the worst floods to hit County Durham in living memory are demanding a meeting with their council landlords.

Residents of River Walk, in West Auckland, are still "camping out" in their homes ten weeks after the River Gaunless burst its banks and left their kitchens and living rooms under 4ft of water.

As they live mainly upstairs while the ground floors dry out, they say their patience is exhausted because they can't get information from their local authority, Wear Valley District Council.

June Pull has three children - Rachel, 15, Lisa, 13, and nine-year-old Dean - squashed upstairs in her three-bedroomed house.

Downstairs, her home is just like all the others in the street - empty apart from a few basic kitchen necessities. There is no plaster on the bottom half of the walls and the kitchen units and the toilet have been taken out.

She said: "We lost all the furniture, but everything we could save like pieces of china is upstairs with us. We have to eat up there and it is really difficult. We understand why drying the house out is taking so long and we don't want it rushing so it causes more problems in the future, but we just want to know what is going on."

Neighbour Irene Campbell said: "If this had happened abroad there would have been plenty of help. We feel we are getting nothing, but more seems to be happening at South Church than here.

"We want a meeting with the council so we can get our questions answered. We just want it from the horse's mouth. We can't do anything to help ourselves until we know what the council is proposing to do."

The council's housing chairman Brian Myers said last night: "The Government has been asked for help, but I am not aware of any that is coming. Instead, we are having to use £500,000 that was set aside to install uPvc windows in homes."