‘It makes me feel angry, no one is doing anything’
RESIDENTS EXPRESS FRUSTRATIONS AT COUNCIL OVER CONDITION OF THEIR ESTATE
‘ANGRY’ Huddersfield council estate residents say they fear for their children’s safety, with complaints about a glass-covered local park, rotten fences and fly-tipping, amongst other issues.
Dalton tenants have slammed Kirkless Council, claiming ‘nothing gets done’ after reporting the issues. This comes after it was revealed housing complaints had doubled from 2022 to 2023 throughout Kirklees, which came to light as part of an update at a meeting of the Growth and Regeneration Scrutiny Panel in preparation for new complaints handling regulations.
Almost 1,000 formal complaints were made by tenants between January and December 2023, a 100 per cent rise on the previous year. This dramatic increase was put down to people having a greater awareness of the complaints process following campaigns from the council and the Ombudsman.
Kirklees Council has said it is looking to resolve the rotten fences and housing officers have a ‘frequent presence’ on housing estates where fly-tipping has been identified.
The authority added that its aim was to create a ‘safe, secure and pleasant’ environment.
Speaking to Yorkshire Live in Springbank Crescent, cleaner Sarah, 35, has said she’s reported he rotted fence months ago, after her two young children, three and one, each managed to get out into the path of danger on separate occasions.
Sarah said: “I reported a fence back in February and I’m still waiting for it. My children nearly got knocked over because they’d run out. The wood has rotted, it’s the same fence which has been in there since they built the house.
“I keep getting on the phone with them and apparently there’s a ‘backlog,’ even though I explained to them my son almost got knocked over on Leeds Road.
“It makes me feel angry. The fact of the matter is, I’m trying to keep my children safe and nobody is doing anything.
“I’ve had to adapt the fence myself to try to keep it up. At the minute, a load of stones are keeping it up.”
Shop assistant Danielle Parkinson, 30, thinks the council could do a better job at cleaning up the area, as she wants it to be a safe and tidy environment for her children, eight and ten, especially the park which she says it at times is full of broken glass.
Danielle said: “It would be nice if the council took more care of it, to be honest. Just having a clean street and a clean park that’s not full of glass, it’s the bare minimum, for a safe clean place to be around and have the kids playing. It’s not asking for much.
“And there’s a lot of things that need fixing that people have been waiting for, like broken fences, gates, in the homes and in people’s gardens.”
Disabled mum Sarah, 50, says she’s reported the grotty back streets, plagued with flytipping, countless times. She’s grown sick and tired of ‘nothing ever getting done.’
Sarah said: “The council are really bad. I’m disabled and can’t use the back street because people just dump rubbish there.
“You try reporting it to the council, all you get is passed on post to post and nothing actually gets done. I’ve reported the backs I don’t how many times.
“There’s trees overgrown, rubbish dumped, and the pavements are so uneven that I’m scared of falling. It makes me feel angry because at the end of the day, it’s only a small estate but nothing ever gets one.”
Naz Parkar, Service Director for Homes and Neighbourhoods at Kirklees Council, said: “Our Greenspace Action Team have only received four fly-tipping reports in this area in the last 12 months.
“Housing officers carry out estate inspections quarterly and have a frequent presence on housing estates where fly-tipping has been identified and reported, the last inspection was in April where bags of rubbish had been identified and reported for clearance.
“As always, we ask anyone who witnesses or spots fly-tipping to report it to the council online so our teams can spot any patterns and take appropriate action.
“Regarding the fencing at Springbank Road and Crescent we are aware of the concerns of tenants and are looking at options to resolve this.
“We would encourage tenants to continue giving feedback to our Housing Officers, and reporting issues wherever they see them so that we can address them promptly – and make our homes and neighbourhoods a safe, secure and pleasant place to live.”