VILLAGERS whose homes were wrecked by the Easter floods told a Government minister how their lives are still not back to normal.

Diane Hill, 38, of Cherwell Avenue, Kidlington, who has no carpets and had to have her kitchen ripped out, spoke to Elliot Morley, the Countryside Minister, when he walked around the worst-hit areas of the village yesterday.

Mrs Hill, who has made an insurance claim for about £7,000, only managed to save her new three-piece suite when water poured thigh-deep into her home after the nearby River Cherwell burst its banks on Good Friday. She told Mr Morley she thought the £18,000 put into a special fund by Cherwell District Council, Oxfordshire County Council and charities for those not insured had not been fairly distributed.

She added: "I just want to see us move forward now. It's not a home anymore - just a house."

Ken Cavey, 68, who has lived in his house in Cherwell Avenue for 42 years, believes the damp and the dehumidifiers have brought on a chest infection.

He told the minister: "We were swamped. I should think we had two and a half feet in one hour and a half. It was terrible."

Mr Morley, who was accompanied on his walkabout by the county's emergency planning officer John Kelly and also visited Banbury, said: "Let's hope it was exceptional circumstances."

The minister added: "The level of the flooding over Easter was the kind you would expect once every 150 years. We don't take that as an excuse and what we are examining is whether we can protect people from that."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.