A pensioner has been battling for almost a year to have drains mended that are leaking raw sewage outside his home.

Douglas Sherriff and his wife Margaret noticed a year ago that their toilet would not flush.

A builder discovered the drains under their house had split due to concrete in the road rotting and snapping the connection pipe.

The couple said the road outside their house in Grafton Drive, Sompting, had sunk two inches and was riddled with cracks since wires for cable television and telephones were fitted six years ago.

Mr Sherriff, 73, who had a stroke in the summer, has already paid £300 to have his drains unblocked.

He said: "Me and my wife are living on a knife edge. It's terrible and is really upsetting me."

The fitting of the cables did not even benefit Mr and Mrs Sherriff, who cannot afford it on their pension.

Mr Sherriff, a retired construction worker, said he warned cable fitters the concrete they were covering was rotting.

He said the pressure of the broken concrete cracked their drainpipe, causing waste from their home to seep into the ground.

Mr Sherriff said: "We've asked the council to help but they told us to claim it on our insurance. We don't want to do that because we'll lose our no-claims bonus and why should we?

"The drains are blocking more frequently and raw sewage is trickling under the road.

"We don't want this sort of hassle during our retirement. We daren't flush the toilet now. I'm intensely annoyed about all this.

"Between us, we only get about £120 a week and we can't afford to keep paying for someone to unblock the drains when it's not even our fault."

A spokeswoman for the council said: "West Sussex County Council is not responsible for private sewer pipes or work carried out by public utility companies.

"Although we receive a number of inquiries about foul sewer connections, all of these are investigated by the freeholder's contractor or their insurance company.

"It is not our duty to look into faults with private or public pipes and equipment.

"The costs of any repairs needed are normally dealt with by insurance companies.

"If it can be proved a third party has damaged pipework, it would usually be the case that the insurance company would charge them."