A FAMILY of eight is marooned in a house too small for them because there are not enough bigger ones to go round.

Four sons in the Downey household, aged between 17 and eight, are crammed into one small bedroom at their home in Lower Road, Erith.

There is only enough room for three single beds so the two youngest boys, Sean, eight, and Liam, nine, have to sleep together.

Their parents have put shelves on the walls above their beds to hold the boys clothes because the room has no cupboards and there is no room for a wardrobe. The kitchen is so small, the fridge, freezer and tumble drier are in the dining room, which cannot be used as a bedroom.

Richard and Theresa Downey also have two daughters, Clair, 15, and Hannah, 12, who share a second bedroom while their parents have the third one.

Mrs Downey said: During the summer holidays, I had all six of them at home. The gardens no bigger than a yard and I was at the end of my tether. In the end I rang social services to see if there were any summer schemes I could get them on to get them out of the house.

Environmental health officials have written to their landlord, Orbit (Bexley) Housing Association warning the family is close to statutory overcrowding.

Orbit accepts conditions for the family are poor, but says it has not got a four-bedroom home to offer the Downeys.

A spokesman said the association had applied for cash from the Housing Corporation for money to be made available before April, to buy some larger homes, and Orbit was hopeful of success. It is also involved in a Bexley Council bid to the Corporation for money.

He said: We have only about 60 four-bedroom homes and only a small number become available each year.

It also has some people living in large homes who want to move to smaller ones when they become available.

He said if the Downeys could not be allocated a four-bedroom home in the near future, the association would try to move them to a bigger three-bedroom one so they could have the option of using the dining room as a fourth bedroom.