HOUSEHOLDERS face having to pay thousands of pounds to correct a 50-year-old fault with their sewerage systems.

Homes on the Garden Farm Estate in Chester-le-Street suffer "cross connection" of their foul and surface water pipes, which are supposed to be separate.

The fault means waste from toilets, kitchen sinks, laundry and bathrooms is being piped into watercourses, instead of being sent to a sewage treatment works.

Northumbrian Water, carrying out a £2.7m sewerage improvement scheme to prevent flooding, discovered the problem after sewage was spotted in the River Wear.

It has told the householders that the cross connections harm the environment and are illegal under the Water Industry Act 1991 and the Building Act 1984.

The company says it is the responsibility of home owners to have the fault corrected.

Some residents, including pensioners, are fearful of the potential cost and disruption that it will cause.

Jack Travis, 90, of Grasmere Road, said: "It is the price of getting these things done after all this time that's worrying."

His daughter, Maureen Gibbon, said the family had been on of the first tomove onto the estate.

"When the houses were built, everything, including the drainage, should have been checked and signed off by the council's building control, " she said.

"The cost of the repairs could be thousands of pounds in some cases for mistakes made 50 years ago - and with no signs of any problems during those 50 years.

"The letters from Northumbrian Water are abrupt and alarming, especially to elderly people who don't understand the problem and have no idea what to do next, never mind how to pay for it."

A spokesman for the company said owners would have to pay to get the problem corrected and could face prosecution if they took no action.

He said 260 homes on the estate had been surveyed so far and 65 had problems. At least 45 had washing machines connected to the surface water drain and at least two had toilets connected to the wrong drainage system.

The spokesman said houseowners had two months to put the problem right but urged anyone facing a problem with that timescale to contact the company.

"We have to take the appropriate action to protect the environment and adhere to the relevant legislation, " he said.