A WOMAN and her family have been left devastated after five floods since March have caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to their house, with the most recent one hitting at the weekend.

Jan King and her family live next to their business, Camelot Kennels in Kelly Bray, Callington and, since March, torrential rain has been too much for the storm drain outside their property, causing water to pour through their kitchen door and into their living room.

Since the first flood in March, they have spent thousands of pounds on new carpets and a private contractor to carry out drainage works and Cornwall County Council have cleared the drains, but nothing has seemed to fix the problem.

'If we have heavy rain for more than an hour, then we have to be up and watching out the window,' said Mrs King.

'It's now got to the point that I would rather not sleep than have all the damage done again.

'What we have to do is build up a wall of towels where the water comes in, then sit on top of them to put pressure and stop the water coming through.

'On Monday morning, the workers arrived at about 9.15 and took about two hours to clear it, but within half an hour, it was blocked again. It's a nightmare.'

The Kings originally contacted North Cornwall District Council about the matter, but now Cornwall County Council is dealing with the problem and has since sent out workers to unblock the drains, with an investigator going on site this week.

A spokesman for Cornwall County Council said: 'Cornwall Highways has attended Camelot Kennels in Kelly Bray on a number of occasions since the first flooding incident in March 2008.

'The property changed hands in 2003 and Mrs King – the current owner of the property – has carried out a range of work and improvements since then. Cornwall Highways has not carried out any alterations to the highway in the area.

'Highway Officers have carried out a camera survey of the drains and jetted the system on several occasions to remove any potential blockages.

'Following this recent event, we have linked the problem to a land drainage issue and a Cornwall Highways officer will be meeting on site this week with the local district council and the land drainage authority, to investigate and discuss the situation further.'