A desperate family are refusing to move out of their rotting home for vital work fearing they will have to spend months in an even worse hostel.

And the Smiths are furious because, they claim, council workers are dithering over the repairs while their council home in Fagley's Ferriby Close is left to fall apart.

Dad Peter Smith damaged his ankle after falling through floorboards infested by woodworm in his children's bedroom and into the cistern of a downstairs toilet.

His wife June said Bradford Council wanted to move them out and put them in a hostel for a day while the boards were repaired, but the family is refusing to budge.

She said: "We were in a hostel for two months before we moved in here and when the children found out the Council wanted to put us back in, they started crying.

"If they move us out, it will have to be for good and into a house with central heating, light bulbs that work, window frames that don't let in water and paving slabs properly fixed.

"There's no way we're going back into that hostel. And it's bound to be for more than a day because anyone with half a brain knows you can't get rid of the woodworm and fix the floor boards in 24 hours."

Mr Smith said: "A surveyor came round saying the children's room had woodworm and they would be back the next day to fix it. They came round and another workmen said it was safe for the time being but someone would be round to fix it.

"But I put my foot through the boards trying to move some of the furniture. Two more council people came round, a specialist condemned the room and said we couldn't go back in there - but a surveyor came round and said it was all right for the time being and just needed some boards.

"The left hand doesn't know what the right is doing."

The family first took its plight to the council last month, when their story appeared in the Telegraph & Argus. Mrs Smith said the workmen had regularly been at the house since then but that the situation was getting worse, not better.

The couple, who have seven children, are now planning to take legal action and are refusing to allow contractors access.

A Council spokesman said: "We have arranged to carry out the work on this house as a matter of urgency and have arranged alternative accommodation for the family whilst the work is carried out."