For 15 months residents on a Hampshire estate have put up with the misery of sleepless nights and itchy bites from bedbugs - after eight insecticide sprays by Southamp-ton City Council failed to rid them of the problem.

Tracey Ward, 27, is now demanding that the council move her and her children, nine-year-old Jake, Lewis, six, and five-year-old Jessy, out of the estate in Northam, Southamp-ton.

She claims the family started finding bedbugs in the flat at Mauretania House, in Kent Street, in July last year.

The flat was sprayed for the eighth time on Friday but this week Tracey found another bug on her children's bed.

She said: "I've just had enough of it - now I just want to move out because I can't stand it anymore. I think they have been here too long - they're in the walls and the floorboards.

"One morning my nine-year-old woke up to 12 bugs crawling all over him, and all over the bed - he was absolutely horrified. It's not fair on the children."

She added: "I've changed my beds, bedding and furniture. I've had to take out a loan and I've had three different settees, but still they keep coming back and I haven't had any compensation."

Michelle Hunt, 25, suffered with the same problem in the next-door flat, before moving to Harefield last month.

She had to buy new beds and use deckchairs in her lounge because she could not take any of her furniture to her new house. She said: "We were told we would get an inconvenience payment but we haven't had anything from the council.

"I was so relieved to get into my new place - it's nice for my kids to be able to sleep at night and not wake up itching and scratching and literally covered in bites," said the mum-of-five.

Lorraine Holmes, 28, whose flat in the same block has also been treated for bedbugs, said: "I just think it's disgusting, the way it's all been handled."

A spokesman for Southampton City Council said: "Last week the flats received a more in-depth treatment from pest control and we are monitoring the success of this very closely.

"We are working with the tenants to reach a satisfactory outcome."