TEENAGERS on a Leominster estate fought a desperate battle to stop floodwater and sewage saturating the homes of pensioners.

Youngsters from the Ridgemoor Road area used brooms and tried various means to hold back the floods from houses at Cheaton Close.

"They are the kids people call roughnecks but they were wonderful - they are the only help we have had," said widow Vanessa Jones, aged 65. "One lad stayed until 2.30 in the morning trying to hold the floods at bay. He was soaking wet and it proved to be an impossible job."

Speaking on Tuesday, Mrs Jones said residents of a block of homes in the close, including elderly people, were in crisis in premises "stinking" of sewage. They had not received any help.

Some residents were still without electric power and had not had meals since before the flood. They had no response to pleas for help from the Marches Housing Association and other bodies.

Mrs Jones, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and has had a hip replacement, was sitting outside her house this week because of the smell inside.

Her carpets, new three-piece suite and other furnishings have been ruined.

Marches Housing Association's offices at Southern Avenue, Leominster, were flooded out and communications systems were put out of action. Spokesman Chris Boote apologised for the delay in visiting tenants at Cheaton Close.

He said the association was responding to about 20 calls for help from flooded-out tenants in Leominster and Tenbury Wells and dealing with the major disruption at its offices.