RESIDENT DEMANDS ACTION AS KIDS RUN RIOT ON GATED ESTATE
Complex hasn’t been secure for 3 years
A RESIDENT is demanding action to stop children ‘running riot’ around a Stoke-on-trent housing complex.
Andrew Thornton purchased a house on Sytchmill Way, in Burslem, seven years ago because the gated Sadlers Park estate provided secure parking.
But he says the electronic gates have been broken for three years to leave local youths kicking footballs at residents’ cars and climbing on the bin store.
Now Andrew - who pays a £180 maintenance fee - wants Rendall and Rittner to better maintain the estate.
The 53-year-old said: “Children are coming onto the car park and kicking footballs onto the cars. They’re getting scratched.
“We have two big skips and a bin store. But people who don’t live on the estate are driving down and flytipping waste into the skip so they become too full and the residents have nowhere to put their rubbish.
“They put their rubbish in bags by the side of the skip and then when the company comes to empty them they only take whatever is in the skip. This week there was so much rubbish, they couldn’t get the skips back in.
“There are people who don’t live here parking up and taking other people’s spaces. I bought this house because it had secure parking but it doesn’t have that anymore.”
He added: “The rubbish gets blown out of the bin store and the back panel has come away. It’s going to attract rats. The gates are now broken to the secure car park and kids are coming in all the time. It’s really annoying the residents.
“What I don’t want to see is one set of residents fighting with another who are letting their children come into the car park. It’s dangerous as well.
“I am paying for this and I am not getting anything back. I feel dreadful about it and like I haven’t got a voice. I look out of my window and see kids kicking balls at the cars and I’m not going to go out because you are fighting a losing battle. If you say something they are only going to do it more.
“I want the car park gate repaired, the bin store repaired, and all the rubbish collected.”
Contractors have visited the site to remove the rubbish following
Andrew’s concerns. A Sadlers Park spokesman said: “We have been working closely with the police regarding anti-social behaviour at Sadlers Park.
“Repeated vandalism has resulted in substantial repair costs over the past years, making this ongoing situation difficult to resolve.”