A GWENT couple forced to move out of their home after it was flooded two months ago still cannot live there.

Sue and Barry Cooke say it will be another two months until they can return to their 17th-century cottage in Tintern.

Torrential rain lashed Gwent on February 1 and Mr and Mrs Cooke awoke the next day to find the sitting-room of their cottage under nine inches of water.

Mrs Cooke (pictured) said at the time: "I opened the front door and water came through like a waterfall - it was horrendous."

Mrs Cooke, 38, estimates the cost of replacing much of her furniture and of replastering the walls, rewiring, and laying a new floor will be between £20,000 and £30,000. Now, two months on, the couple, who own the Wye Valley Hotel, are still living in a room there while repair work continues on the cottage.

"We are losing money from the room," said Sue. "We can't go home and our one-year-old puppy can't play in the garden."

The couple believe the flooding is because of a culvert underneath part of the cottage - and claim Monmouthshire county council is failing to solve the problem.

But the council's highways chief, David Harris, said: "There is a commitment to carry out the work and we will do it as soon as we can arrange it.

"There is perceived to be a blockage in the culvert, but until we get a camera down there we just don't know. The support and commitment is there."