Waste collected at the house of Mrs X during one clean-up.
A Pakistani Christian woman who had suffered several years of a brutal marriage and was forced to separate from her husband, has been given a notice of eviction from her council property after a landlord got tired of her complaints of anti-social behaviour, linked to the removal of a dilapidated fence.
Mrs X states that the property was a peaceful haven until the landlord removed the dangerously broken fence after she urged Wentworths who were agents for Redbridge council, to seek repair of the fence that had become unsafe following a hurricane in January 2016. Both Wentworths and the landlord stated they would replace the fence, however, later the landlord decided to leave the front garden of her home vulnerable despite knowledge of antisocial behaviour in the vicinity of the home.
Complaints raised by Mrs X include a rat and other pest infestation as people now sit on the low wall on the corner of her property and leave food and other waste in her garden – an antisocial offence that also leaves the family having to clear up the regular littering.
drug-user syringes create a frightening risk to her young vulnerable children.
But that is the least of her concerns. Mrs X is more concerned about the numerous times drug users have left drugs paraphernalia including syringes in her garden. The needles have had to be cleared up by her or her 14 year old son whilst she is in the third trimester of her pregnancy. As a practising GP nurse this concerned mother is very well aware of the potential infection of dangerous diseases such as hepatitis through such needles. Despite imploring Nicholas Kaba from the environmental health team, local Councillor Zulfikar Hussain and Redbridge Housing Team, nothing has been done to remedy her situation instead a housing officer named Irfan Gulnawaz informed her that the cleanliness of the property was her responsibility.
Her 14 year old son has been helping clear away litter and needles.
Drug users and alcoholics regularly use her front garden as a ‘dossing station’ and smashed bottles of beer leave a further health hazard that her vulnerable children aged 2 – 14 have to skirt around, causing untold hours of cleaning for the beleaguered family.
Worse still, the side of her house is a popular place for prostitutes to enact with their customers out of view of prying eyes, but the noise disturbs her family. Unsafe condoms have been found frequently on the grounds of her forecourt and Mrs X has said she has been crying herself to sleep due to the shame she feels, the fear of attack by strangers if she disturbs them and the danger her children face. She has said living at the home on Green Lane is like something out of a horror movie ‘I would rather live in the house on Amityville Hill’, she said.
Used condoms create an unsightly, embarrassing health hazard.
Things came to a head when Wilson Chowdhry Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association was asked to intervene. On the day he arrived at her home he was amazed to see a drunken man who did not seem to be homeless asleep on her front drive. Despite calling the police and expressing the danger Mrs X faced because of her vulnerable physical position and her young children the police placed her on a low priority service. The man left three hours later after urinating in her front garden which would have seen by members of the public and could have been seen by her children. The police never turned up not even to see if she and her family were in good health.
Living inside the home is no better, as her home is regularly subjected to a bath tub leak because the landlord refuses to repair the leak properly in his attempts to subvert the cost of a proper repair.
The beleaguered woman states that carpets are so old that ‘despite paying for a professional carpet wash it’s impossible to get rid of dust mites from them and my 2 year old children have developed an allergy that is affecting them on a daily basis’.
Mrs X, said:
“Five of the windows in the house are nailed to stop them from opening for no apparent reason, which prevents effective ventilation. Moreover the seals around the windows are broken which allows cold winds to gush into the house resulting in freezing cold rooms during the winter.
“This has resulted in extremely high gas bills in order for me to keep the house warm. Last winter was so harsh I had to keep our heating on 24 hours a day.
“When I asked the Council to look into these issues the land lord served me with an eviction notice that ends on the 9th of July 2018. I have five children and despite being extremely depressed and anxious about being homeless I don’t want to stay in this disgusting property anyway.
” I have been asked by the housing officer wait until I get the bailiff eviction notice and become officially homeless. Only then will Redbridge housing office provide any help to me.
“I am in desperate need for permanent housing so I appealed to the British Pakistani Christian Association to provide me support through my last trimester of pregnancy.”
Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the BPCA, said:
“The treatment of this already depressed expecting mother of five children is tantamount to persecution in my opinion. I am shocked that the council have not offered any more long term solution and rapidly – considering the vulnerability of both her and her young children.
Moreover how no action has been taken against a landlord clearly in breach of health and safety and local by-laws is a matter for conjecture at the least and outright condemnation overall.
“She is a working mother and tries her best to make ends meet despite that absence of the father of her children who is a registered alcoholic. Moreover, if her marriage had worked out better she should have expected a much better life having graduated with a nursing degree and now working part-time as a GP nurse at several practices.
” Her expressed desire is to leave Redbridge and move to Norfolk and we will be demanding immediate assistance from the Council for this to happen, using their discretionary fund. Her life in Redbridge is one full of bad memories and a past she wants to escape and forget.
“Considering the lack of professionalism by Council departments that have let her life turn to ruin it would be small compensation indeed if they helped in this manner. If anything they should see it as a duty to one of the most dissatisfied residents of a once proud borough.”
