Incredibly, that is the situation in which a young couple in the town found themselves last weekend.

For two years, Evelyne and Paul Parker, of 14 Warack Street, have been crammed into a two-bedroomed council house with six children aged from four months to 13.

For three years, before they got together, Evelyne struggled to find better accommodation.

Given the well-documented lack of housing in and around St Andrews, they've had no luck and last weekend their troubles doubled when they found raw sewage pumping into their garden every time they flushed the loo.

Contractors carrying out harling work had left air vents off and waste water pipes cut.

Not only were the family left with a serious health hazard, initially they had no hot water and a damaged bath.

They don't know how they'd have coped without support from their families.

Evelyne (31) told the Citizen: "The council had sub-contracted people to come out and harl the building.

''They downed tools on Friday and left pipes unconnected, holes in the walls and a hole from the bathroom leading outside. This was the last straw."

Evelyne, who suffers from post-natal depression, has one child with Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder.

She said that all the stress and sleep deprivation was affecting the whole family.

Paul (29), who was born and brought up in St Andrews, is looking for work but finds his home situation isn't helping.

"We have three boys and three girls, aged from four months to 13, living with us in a two-bedroomed house,'' he explained.

''We have to use one bedroom for storage so there's room for the children to eat in the kitchen.

"Four of the children are in one room and the two youngest sleep with us in the living room. There's hardly any light in the bedroom as the wardrobe is against the window so there's room for the bunk beds.

''With the kids all sharing, if one gets head lice, it just goes round them all. Our 13-year-old daughter is in high school and her only privacy is the top bunk where she keeps all her treasures in a plastic box. She's got nowhere to do her homework and, recently, she took two hours to do an essay and one of the little ones tore it up."

The Parkers have begged the council for any accommodation in the surrounding area.

Evelyne added: "Even a three-bedroomed house would be fantastic compared to what we are in at the moment."

Osahto Osaghae, Fife Council's client services manager for the housing services, apologised for the weekend incident.

He added: "This was a dreadful situation this family found themselves in and I'm very sorry they were let down in this way.

''Thankfully, on Monday, their water supply was reconnected and all services are now fully working again. As a matter of urgency, the repair to the roughcasting has also been done.

''We've now taken steps to clarify the role of the contractor and our out-of-hours repair service. There was clearly a misunderstanding as to who was responsible for the emergency repair work."

John Mills, the council's senior housing manager, confirmed the council was reviewing the Parker's application to see if their request for a three bedroomed house, rather than a four or five bedroomed one, could be met.