Now his anxious parents are calling on their landlord, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, to make their home safe for their young children and act on the dozen complaints they say they have made about the rotten flooring to date.

The couple claim rot has got so bad the kitchen is now effectively sinking and say the units are coming away from the walls.

When the Driffield Post brought the latest incident to the attention of the council yesterday, it vowed to send out an inspector to assess the floor within 24 hours.

Matthew's mum Sarah Gibson said: "We are not asking them to do a major job, we are just asking them to make the house safe for the kids."

"It's got to the point where it's hurting the kids and I'm seething about it."

Ms Gibson and her partner John Jones moved from Leeds into a council house on Church View, Garton-on-the-Wolds, just over two years ago in the hope of improving their quality of life but they say they now live in constant fear for the safety of their two young children, two-year old Matthew and five-year old Joshua.

Last Wednesday afternoon Matthew allegedly tripped over uneven and rotten flooring trying to reach for his dummy in a kitchen drawer. He smashed his head on the corner of the cooker.