WELCOME to Curie Close, Newport - where pensioner Bill Casey says he's so fed up with waiting for the damaged street sign to be repaired, he made his own.

Mr Casey, 77, says the sign for the Malpas street went missing six months ago.

His wife, Barbara, is currently being treated for cancer of the lymph nodes, and Mr Casey says he is concerned that if his wife falls ill, ambulance crews may be unable to find his house without a street sign to guide them.

So the pensioner made a makeshift street sign from a cardboard box and a deckchair in time for his wife's return from hospital next week.

Mrs Casey has been at St Woolos Hospital, in Newport, since June of this year.

Mr Casey says he has had trouble with delivery drivers being unable to find his property, and even had house-hunters knocking on his door after confusing his street with another.

He adds that it was particularly distressing when his wife was rushed into hospital when she first fell ill.

He said: "My family had to wait on the road for the ambulance in case it would pass the house and get lost.

"There should be a sign there for emergency services, so I have now resorted to creating my own sign out of cardboard and paint." Mr Casey's daughter, Jean, claims she complained to Newport council more than five months ago - although a spokeswoman for the local authority is insisting it was only brought to their attention last Friday.

Jean Casey said: "My father is 77 and he doesn't need all this. He is getting all worked up about it because my mother will be coming out of hospital soon and she is still very poorly.

"We might have to call out an ambulance for her one night, and we are worried that no-one would know where to go.

"This has been going on and on with the council, and I think it is just terrible." A spokeswoman for Newport city council said the missing street sign was only brought to their attention last week, and a replacement sign would be erected as a priority in the next few weeks.