A 23-YEAR-OLD mother says she is increasingly desperate to move from council flats she feels are no place to bring up two young children due to anti-social behaviour.
Aimee Richards was aghast at security camera footage showing a man making strange noises and wearing only boxer shorts and a sock ferreting around bin bags in a communal area outside the entrance to her flat.
The footage from one morning in February shows his boxer shorts failing to cover himself up completely at one point.
Miss Richards claimed someone tried to rip off the rear number plate of her car, which was parked outside her block at Weig Gardens, Gendros, in March. She said the number plate was broken.
On another occasion, this month, footage shows a woman appearing in the communal area outside her third-floor flat in a dressing gown apparently interested in the bins.
Miss Richards shares her flat with her partner and their son, who is nearly three, and daughter, who is nearly two.
She claims she can often smell cannabis and noise is a problem, particular for her son.
She said: “He says, ‘Mammy I’m scared’. I don’t want him more traumatised than he already is.”
She added: “The smell of weed is disgusting.”
Miss Richards has spoken to Swansea Council’s housing department, South Wales Police and the office of Gower MP Tonia Antoniazzi about her concerns and is on a housing waiting list.
She contacted the Local Democracy Reporting Service about her situation last September and, speaking this week, said it had worsened, resulting in her being prescribed anti-depressants. She also has a back condition called lumbar spondylosis.
Miss Richards said she was the only parent of young children in her block, and she had put netting on her balcony to deter her son from trying to climb up it.
She and her partner, Rhys Davey, who works as a delivery driver, have lived in the flat for more than three years.
She’s tried using an online council housing service called HomeSwapper, which allows tenants to swap their properties, but said no-one was interested.
Miss Richards wants to move to a three-bedroom house, and said in a lengthy message to a housing officer last September that she had found out one was apparently becoming available locally.
She said it needed some work and she would happy to wait until the work was done, but nothing came of it.
Speaking last September, Miss Richards claimed she had found drug needles in the block and urine and sometimes excrement had been left in communal areas.
Her partner, she said, had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after a tragic incident involving a Weig Gardens tenant.
South Wales Police wrote a letter to the council last year saying it was aware of 10 reports of “serious issues” in the vicinity of Miss Richards’ property in the last two years.
The letter said there was an increasing risk of her children “witnessing problem behaviour” and asked the council to consider a move for the family as a priority.
A police spokesman said this week: “Our neighbourhood policing team are aware of reported incidents at the location and continue to patrol the area.
“We urge any resident residing in the vicinity to report any criminal activity to us through the correct channels.”
Referring to the incident with the man in the boxer shorts, the police spokesman said a 49-year-old had been arrested in relation to a report of indecent exposure but there was insufficient evidence to charge him with any offences.
The spokesman said enquiries were made in relation to a report of number plate damage but again there was insufficient evidence to take it further.
Swansea Council said its housing teams continued to work with police to tackle anti-social behaviour in the area.
A spokesman said: “We’re continuing to support the tenant in her request for a transfer to another property and she has been awarded the appropriate number of points in relation to her housing circumstances.”
The council replied to a letter from the office of Ms Antoniazzi about Miss Richards’s living situation, saying she was on the top 10 of the housing waiting list in some areas and had been awarded “housing need” points to reflect her circumstances.
The council’s letter said other Weig Gardens residents were experiencing similar issues, but it recognised Miss Richards’ medical conditions were being negatively affected by living in the flat.
Regarding the empty house locally Miss Richards was keen to move to, the letter said the housing officer wasn’t aware of it but, if available, it would have been allocated to the family at the top of the waiting list on the day.
