Nightmare living here

Sam-Barr

Hi Guys

Been living in my council flat for 3 years now and the area is in rapid decline.
A local high-rise tower has been earmarked for demolition this year and the more "undesirable" residents have been moved into houses in the area I live in.
I've had the police out 8 times in the past year, once when a man was kicking my door and window screaming for some girl called Becca?
The bin sheds which are about 5metres from my house are continually being set alight, fire engines were last out on Friday night there to extinguish a blaze.
Urine, booze, booze cans, needles, empty "baggies" all littering the stairwell....
I'm a single 24 year old living on my own in this one bedroom flat, too scared to leave the house most night with all the commotion outside.

I'd appreciate any advice on how to go about getting another house through the council. I'm worried I may end up in a worse area though :-(
Would it help me to go to housing first or go straight to my MP? How can I find out who my local MP is? I was on the North Lanarkshire Council website, but there is no way to tell exactly the name of the area I live in as there are so many and they are not clearly labellled with boundaries on a map.

BitterAndTwisted

WRITE to your local housing officer and try to get all of your neighbours to do the same. Local Authorities are supposed to take anti-social behaviour very seriously. My own LA has a clause in their tenancy agreements warning tenants if they are anti-social they can be evicted and never offered LA housing ever again. Start keeping a diary of everything that happens and get your neighbours to do it. The LA can't tackle the problems if they don't know what they are and they don't know who's causing them.

STAY AND FIGHT!

It'll be quicker than trying to get a transfer as you are a low priority without any dependents and you haven't mentioned any specific disability.

Sam-Barr

Thank you very much B.A.T.
I'm afraid my neighbours are not much help here, I'm the only one in a housing complex of 14 houses who seems to care, I am also quite sure I'm the only one who goes out to work everyday. Urgh, this is depressing.
Right on cue the eejits 2 doors down have started banging stuff about and shouting.
I'm pretty sure they deal drugs from that house, they all seem to know each other down here, I keep out of their way.
If I were to "grass" any of them in, they'd probabaly use their powers of deduction to realise it was me.

TBH I lost faith in the police the night they didn't respond for 3 hours after I called when the drunk/high guy was battering my door down.
I d however have faith in my re-enforced door!

Do you think there would there be any chance of police and LA working together, to show amount of call outs to this area?
Could I request any info under FOI?

I thought maybe going straight to MP would be best, y'know, kinda start at the top cos the council take so long to do anything in my experience.

Sam-Barr

Incyder wrote: »

whats ur postcode, then we can try and find who your mp is ?

Should I really be giving out that info on a public forum???? :eek:

tbs624

Sam-Barr wrote: »

Should I really be giving out that info on a public forum???? :eek:

Er, no.

You can find your MP by inputting your postcode here though http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ or
http://www.writetothem.com/

Sam-Barr

Is there a difference between your councillor and your MP?

Sam-Barr

Incyder wrote: »

yes, usually 4 stone and 20k a year.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!! Good one Incyder!


Sorry if I'm coming across as a bit "daft", it shows I don't have much knowledge in this area

Sam-Barr

ska_lover wrote: »

I empathise with you Sam,as I am in a similar situation, I was on antidepressents, got the MP involved and the lot, ringing the police every night because there are gangs of yobbos 6 feet from my front door. After 12 years of waiting for the council to help I am nearly there with a deposit for my own house and get the hell out of here.
The council wont help in a rush - as you are 'adequately housed' and there are homeless people who are worse off than you. You should look for private rents and do it now - don't waste 12 years of your life, like I have, waiting for help to come that won't ever arrive.

i know EXACTLY WHAT you mean about being the only one in your street who goes out to work every morning!! IT IS THE SAME HERE!! and none of the other neighbours seem to notice that we are plagued by gangs of yobbos screaming and drinking a few feet away from our houses each night!

Oh Ska, that sucks!!!
:-( *hugs*
I don't mean this to sound like a total sympathy-seeking sob story but my parents died when I was young and I was living with family, but they had no room for me after a few more nieces and nephews popped out. urgh. So I was given this house as I was on homeless list. Was overjoyed at the time to have a place of my own and spent almost all the money I was left in will on renovating this wee flat.
Now realise if I move I will be billed for the removal of all my "upgrades", shower, flooring, coving... urgh!!!!!
Feel like a complete idiot for all I've done.

Triker

I'm going back a lot of years but I had the same issues as you, I was in a council flat barricaded in every night due to the dodgy people around. I nearly died in a fire when some vigilantes set a flat below me on fire to 'burn out' the residents...I knew there was a dog in there and went in to get it out....I know, bad idea but I couldn't wait for the fire engines.

Anyway after being burgled 4 times in 10 months...they were succesful, there were many,many attempts to break in, I couldn't cope any longer. I slept with weapons near me just in case someone got in. I was young, 18 and on my own.....anyway I got a job and it was shift work, the first night I came back I had, yet again been burgled.

I went to see my M.P. the next day...luckily they had their 'surgery' that day.

I explained that I was a single young woman trying to work but living like this was destroying me and I was frightened, very, very frightened.

Anyway, within 3 weeks I was allocated another flat in a much better area. I ripped the wooden boards off the flat with my bare hands to get into it, saw it and signed for it.

Good luck, I truly hope you can get out, any way you can, if necessary I'd go into the private sector, or ask about Housing Association.

Go and see your M.P. asap.

Sam-Barr

ska_lover wrote: »

the MP is the more powerful one sam, but he can only do so much. ive been down that route and honest, youre wasting ur time with the MP, COUNCIL thing. they will say you are adequately housed. the police and the council wont work together, every single time i ring the police or council about it, they never seem to have any kind of case built up. The thing is, you arent being hounded PERSONALLY its just a crappy area - and that is what they say to me, im not getting anything thrown at my windows etc, so why am i bothered, kind of thing. however it is intimidated to step out of my front door straight into a gang of 20 odd p*ssed up yobbo's and have them screaming till the time i get up to go to work in the mjornings is a joke.

That's an absolute disgrace.

I was having a hissy fit over my dilemma on Friday night, while all the bin sheds were on fire and the kids were outside throwing stones at the fire engine and the fire-fighters from the balconies.
I was determined to get out of here, my best mate works for the Sun newspaper, it would be absolutely no problem for him to draw up a quick article (the sun, not my preferred newspaper but would get the point across), was thinking of ways i could use the bad press to get MP/Counciller to realise my situation and hopefully speed things up, even just the threat of bad press would perhaps be enough?

To even get this house while on homeless list, I called up the housing officer every day until they offered me it. I pestered the life out of them, I'm not afraid of a war with the powers that be, just afriad of the junkies/dealers and jakies thats all

BitterAndTwisted

Go down to your local authority's housing department and talk to someone. LA's do work with the police, especially if they have concrete information to work with. That's why you need to keep a diary. Phone your local police station (NOT 999) and ask for the police to attend every time there's something going on. They can't do anything unless they're told.

One of the most effective ways to get anti-social issues attended to is to write, write, write. I'm absolutely certain that your LA has an anti-social behaviour unit tucked away somewhere. I refuse to believe that my LA is the only one in the country to have one.