Written evidence submitted by Anonymous [EXA 051]
 

To the members of the committee:

Members of the local community are frequently ignored in discussions of exempt accommodation (and I would hope that as you have ‘Communities’ in your committee title, you will take a different path) and I hope this document will go some way to redressing that lack of awareness of a typical impact on settled residents.

I was in an intolerable situation in 2020 due to dumping and fly tipping in the communal back alley access to our terraced houses. There are locks on the gates to the roads, so dumping by non-residents is not possible. The dumping came from the two exempt properties which have access to the rear. When tenants of these properties move out, their landlords dump their furniture, mattresses and other debris there. At the time of these incidents, the dumping had amassed a height of two metres and was ten metres long in two places, completely blocking the alley.

The situation was that my asbestos toilet outflow pipe broke, and contents of the toilet were being deposited on my outhouse roof. This needed to be repaired immediately as it was a health risk, but due to the dumped mattresses, building waste and and other rubbish, the contractors were not able to gain access to the rear of my house.

I could get no help from the council or other representatives as they said that these alleys are unadopted and they have no responsibility to help, even given the health risk.

This meant that for around six months, I had no alternative but to bury human waste in my tiny back garden.

Eventually volunteers helped me. We raised some money and hired two skips and a digger to clear it and allow my toilet to be repaired. Within weeks however, the landlords of the exempt accommodation were dumping there again and the waste became impassible again, and we started to see many rats.

In addition, people in one of the exempt properties had parties every week until 4:00am or later meaning I could get no sleep (I work as a lecturer and needed to work from home). It was intolerable. On one occasion my councillor came down at 1:00am to remonstrate with them, but to no avail. This carried on for a year and they continually broke Covid restrictions.

The person supposedly put in place to support supposedly ‘vulnerable’ residents was frequently complicit in organising these all-night parties and his ‘guests’ who were loud and frequently violent, would be visiting at all hours.

Further, there was regular public drugtaking where drug paraphernalia would be left all over the road

We all know that exempt housing is important, but there are 380 of these in Stockland Green and the character of this formerly peaceful community with family houses has been fundamentally changed. The more of these exempt conversions are completed, the more families move out. Their house are then bought by landlords who convert them to exempt accommodation for ex-offenders and  drug takers as well as vulnerable women fleeing violence, resulting in more families moving out. It is a downward spiral with no council oversight or control. Planning permission is not required to set up these conversions of tiny terraced houses. The exempt house two doors from me managed to have six tiny bedrooms in a two-up two-down terraced house as the landlord had convert the loft and dug out the basement to make more rooms.

I include an overhead photograph of the area showing the access gates, the dumping and with the two exempt properties indicated.


I have also been attacked by a disturbed and drunken man whilst getting my prescription (addicts queue for their methodone in my local pharmacy). I reported this to my MP. This area has become dangerous and having lived here for 40 years, I know it used to be a beautiful and friendly community. We now have large numbers of mostly young men who just sit around in groups, drinking. As an indicator of the increasing level of disorder, here is photograph taken from my bedroom window when a car was firebombed. I have to reiterate; this area was never dangerous before about ten years ago. We have a lovely housing stock and a beautiful park with a lake. Sadly, I would not now walk through this area at night. There have been several murders, with one occurring in an exempt property.


Please make recommendations to introduce effective controls and oversight over these exempt accommodations to restore our communities.
Please also consider the damaging effect of a high percentage of the exempt accommodation compared to family homes in a given community area and look to a wider dispersal. There is much more I could mention, but I am conscious of the deadline of tonight (Thursday 27th January 2022)

 

A letter to my MP regarding being verbally assaulted:

From: redacted

Subject: Abuse in Stockland Green

Date: 16 June 2021 at 17:26:06 BST

To: Jack Dromey <jack.dromey.mp@parliament.uk>

Cc: Councillor Penny Holbrook <penny.holbrook@birmingham.gov.uk>, Councillor Josh Jones <josh.jones@birmingham.gov.uk>

Dear Jack,

I had a horrible experience this morning; verbally and sexually abused by a man who was either a drug user or drunk at 9:30am whilst I was waiting to go into Stockland Green Health Centre for a Warfarin test. It isn't fair we have to wait out there whilst addicts come and go into the pharmacy to get their methodone. He didn't have a mask and was right in my face with his spit going everywhere. Then he started to manipulate his genitals in a very aggressive way. No-one lifted a finger to help me and I was shocked, shaking and in tears at the end of it. I no longer want to live here. I escaped from the council estate I grew up in by saving for a deposit on my house, but after 40 years, the worst of that council estate has followed me here now thanks to HMOs and exempt accommodation. This shouldn't be happening in our lovely leafy suburb. Following firebombing of a car opposite my house, people having sex against my neighbours wall, drug paraphernalia all over the street and a year of loud parties until 4:00am, this is the last straw.

I am surprised any decent people stay in Stockland Green. The government are making it possible and lucrative for landlords and organised crime to dump drug addicts and ex offenders on us, seemingly with no oversight and making a teriffic amount of money from the taxpayer. I have had enough, and just want to leave. The Health Centre should allow us to go inside at the very least; there’s enough room and we wouldn’t be at the mercy of every passing crazy methodone addict.

Please can you let me know what you think. Is there anything you can do to help this get back to the lovely community it once was? If Labour return to power will you push for this system to be radically reformed?

Thank you Jack,

Myself (redacted address)

Here is some of my correspondence with local councillors and others:
 

On 11 Jun 2020, at 15:11, xxxxxxxxxxx@mac.com wrote:

Dear Penny,

I have a desperate situation and I urgently need your help. Please help me.

I desperately have to replace my waste pipe from my upstairs toilet, as at the moment if I were to use it, it would vent the contents of my toilet all over my outhouse roof as the asbestos pipe has fractured.

To do this, I need to get contractors into the alley which runs behind the houses the full length of XXXXX Road. Currently this is totally impossible due to massive mounds of rubbish from old beds to all sorts of miscellaneous rubbish dumped by someone in three separate accumulations directly to the top and bottom of my section of the alley. I have never seen it this bad in all my years of living here, and it is totally  impassible. The contractors will need to get a vehicle in to bring in a scaffold tower to fix my sewer pipe.

My neighbour is a witness to the people dumping in the back alley and is willing to identify them and the houses responsible, but right now it is urgent that my contractors get access as I cannot use my only toilet.

This is an intolerable situation. It is fly tipping on a massive scale. Toward the top of the hill there is a wall of rubbish which has to be three or four meters high and completely blocks the alley. It can only have build up that much by the  heavy equipment being used to pile it up. I couldn’t have been done by hand.

My neighbours and I are also very concerned by the fire risk this entails. If that rubbish were to catch alight there would be a total conflagration with would quickly spread along our wooden fences to the houses. Firemen would not be able to get into the back alley and would have no chance to control a fire to the rear of our houses.

I have lived here for 40 years or so and I have never seen such disgusting lack of community responsibility and total disregard for their neighbours displayed by the people dumping such a vast amount of material.

Please get in touch with me as soon as you can. This is an urgent situation which I have to resolve as soon as possible as it is a health hazard.

Kind regards,

Me (redacted)

Address and email redacted

From: Councillor Ian Ward Ian.Ward@birmingham.gov.uk
Subject: RE: Rear access to xxx xxxxx Road, Erdington, Birmingham B23 7QQ

Date: 8 July 2020 at 12:48 To: redacted email

Cc: Councillor Penny Holbrook Penny.Holbrook@birmingham.gov.uk
Dear Ms XXXXXXXXX
Thank you for copying the Leader into your correspondence with Councillor Penny Holbrook.

This area does not belong to Birmingham City Council and it would appear to be the responsibility of each owner/tenant to maintain the rear of their property. However, as this does not appear to be happening, I am enquiring with officers in Fleet & Waste as to what acJon, if any, can be taken in order to find a resolution.

I will write to you again when I have further information.

Councillor Ian Ward
Leader of Birmingham City Council Tel : 0121 464 4000

From: redacted (Myself)
Sent: 08 July 2020 12:09
To: Councillor Penny Holbrook <Penny.Holbrook@birmingham.gov.uk>
Cc: Councillor Ian Ward <Ian.Ward@birmingham.gov.uk>; Councillor Josh Jones <Josh.Jones@birmingham.gov.uk>; Jack Dromey <jack.dromey.mp@parliament.uk> Subject: Re: Rear access to xxx xxxxx Road, Erdington, Birmingham Bxx xxx

Downlod full resolution images Available until 7 Aug 2020

Dear Penny,

Thank you so much for replying. I am sorry to hear you’ve been ill and I hope you’re well on the road to recovery. I did email Josh too, but he didn’t reply.

My situation is critical, and you’ll forgive me for being blunt.

I have to defecate in a bucket.

Every two days I have to dig a big hole in the back garden, where I bury it.

I am running out of space to dig.

Not only is this horrible and demeaning for me, (especially at my age) but it is surely a potenJal health hazard.

I have to get contractors in to fix my toilet outflow pipe and remove the old asbestos one (which is another health hazard)

Because my neighbours on St Thomas’ Road see nothing wrong in deposing debris and rubbish to the height of two metres completely blocking the alley in both directions, contractors cannot get their truck and scaffold tower to my rear garden.

We mustn’t allow this to carry on.

Even if the alley is not part of the council estate (and why can’t it be adopted?), surely this is a case where Environmental Health would have the funds to remove this rat-infested rubbish?

It is absolutely intolerable.

Please, can you talk to Environmental Health to see if the case is progressing (if indeed it has been passed onto them).

I don’t think I can take much more.
Kind regards,
Myself (redacted)

Here, once again, are the pictures:

­

January 2022