DO THEY REALLY EXPECT PEOPLE TO LIVE LIKE THIS?

9:14am Wednesday 14th May 2008

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IT looks, literally, like a bomb has hit it.

The bricks from a destroyed wall block an entire alleyway. Scorch marks scar the sides of burnt out houses. Windows stand open without panes or boards, the ceilings inside, upstairs and down, gaping with wrenched holes.

Yards at the rear of derelict homes are filled with old mattresses, fridges, household waste and discarded clothing.

A broken outside toilet still floods the garden of one empty home a shocking three months after neighbours reported it.

There are mice, and rats. And many of the keys to the alley gates designed to protect the community are allegedly held by the very people terrorising it.

At least five houses have been torched within the last month - burnt out from within after groups of youths have broken through the inefficient security barriers.

And among this dreadful scene in Birkenhead's Milner Street, there are people attempting to achieve an everyday life - with little or no help from the rest of Wirral.

People like mother Sandra Murphy, who firmly believes the firebugs could claim a life unless they are halted.

Two weeks ago Sandra and her five-year-old daughter were forced to flee their smoke-filled home after yobs torched the house next door. It was the fifth blaze in the street in just four weeks.

Mrs Murphy is still living in her property, but is one of many tenants who have contacted the Globe concerned about anti-social behaviour.

"People are genuinely scared that their home will be next," she said.

"The people doing this to us are just animals. They are putting our lives in danger. Someone will die in one of these fires unless a way is found to stop them.

"I'm a chronic asthmatic and the house was so full of smoke that I can't now even sleep in my own house because of this.

"My nebuliser is clogged with smoke now so that's useless. And I do actually need that to breathe. I wonder if the mindless idiots would do this to their own mothers or grandparents?"

There have also been reports of gangs arriving in vans, breaking into derelict properties and taking scrap metal and fittings from kitchen boilers.

The attacks, say the residents, are an almost daily occurence in Milner Street, which is supposed to be part of a major redevelopment programme for the north end of Birkenhead but which in reality resembles a neglected, forgotten war zone.

Among those who are planning to move out is pensioner Maureen Turner, 66, who has lived in the same house for 34 years and has spent thousands of pounds redecorating.

She is now packed, ready and waiting to leave, but says she cannot afford to. "It's getting really frightening around here," she said. "I'm getting too old to buy a house now and the council hasn't offered me enough to afford anything else.

"I have spent thousands doing my house up, but the council have said I would have to leave it all if I was to move.

"The police are always putting warnings about arson through our doors but it doesn't make any difference. If there are no police here to stop the vandals there is nothing anyone can really do afterwards.

"It's just terrifying. Our lives are being made hell."

ost of the residents are too terrified of reprisals to be named, but were happy to allow the Globe inside their homes to see the circumstances in which they are forced to survive.

From the rear child's bedroom window of one house on Milner Street, we looked out at three vacated properties, each one of them savaged by vandals and then used as a dumping ground by flytippers.

Dividing garden walls have been smashed down with hammers, and down the alley runs a stream of lavatory water that pours noisily night and day from the vandalised outdoor loo next door.

"We all know who's doing it," said one of the residents who asked not to be named.

"But it's no good us knowing who they are and then telling the police...

"They need to be caught in the act and that means having more police or community support officers down here actually walking the beat in the early hours, which is when most of the attacks are taking place."

Another resident, a grandmother, claims she has been approached twice by taxi drivers angry about people running off without paying their fare.

"What the louts do is get a taxi back from the nightclubs and give my address as a destination. When the taxi pulls up here, the customer jumps out without paying and runs over the alleygate next to my home.

"The drivers obviously think that person who's just skipped off lives here, which they most certainly do not. But the next thing is that my doorbell is going at all times of the night and I have to calm down an angry driver.

"These youths are just like animals, although that's unfair on animals. Our lives aren't being made a misery - they actually are a misery. It's night after night after night and everybody is at their wits' end but whoever we go to for help just can't wait to get us off the phone.

"Yes, we get letters saying this will be done and that will be done. But the people who write these letters then do nothing about it then, and go back to live in their cosy homes with their nice gardens and forget that we're waiting to see which house will be the next to be burnt out."

She added: "We are never off the phone to the council or the police but it's as if we're invisible.

"Would that be the case if we were living somewhere in Heswall or Caldy? I don't think so. People living in places like this are just being left to rot.

"We're expected to just get on with it because we're clearly not worth the bother in the eyes of the local authorities."

Some of the residents in Milner Street say they have been on housing waiting lists for staggering amounts of time. One has been waiting to be rehoused for ten years. Another claims to have been waiting almost twice as long. Alleygates, designed to keep the unwanted and undesired out are "next to useless", say residents. One said: "Nobody's even sure who's supposed to have the keys or not have them.

"Some of the people holding keys definitely shouldn't have them as they're part of the problem. But apparently the council believes we should sort that out.

"The idea of alleygates is to cut down on anti-social behaviour and reduce crime. The reality is a shambles."

All residents of Milner Street - private and council tenants alike - are supposed to be rehoused on the housing renewal scheme, but say whenever they ask for a date they are cold-shouldered.

One lady told us: "The council isn't interested. If this was about trying to get tourists to come and watch a damned golf tournament they'd be all over us like a rash. Instead they want to sweep our problems under the carpet and seem to be hoping that we'll just go away. Believe me - we'd all love to go away. But we haven't anywhere to go."

A Wirral Council spokesman said: "The council is aware of a small number of incidents that have taken place recently in the Milner Street area and is taking action in response to these problems.

"The council has arranged for all empty properties in council ownership to be stripped of any valuable fixtures and fittings by a specialised contractor."

Paul Harrison, the area's Neighbourhood Inspector for Merseyside Police, said: "In the past we were aware that this area has experienced a number of issues with anti-social behaviour and criminal damage.

"Our dedicated neighbourhood teams are working with local residents and businesses to reduce this problem and in the past few months we have seen a significant drop in the number of recorded incidents of crime.

"As well as regular high-visibility patrols in the area, we have worked with the community to set up Neighbourhood Action Groups, which meet on a regular basis to get feedback from local residents.

"As part of the Government's Respect agenda, we have used many tactics including truancy sweeps, warrant executions, mounted officers patrolling the neighbourhood, removing graffiti, and a leaflet drop to residents. In one operation alone we arrested 14 people in the area for burglary offences.

"More recently a prolific offender from the area has been charged with 13 offences and is currently awaiting trial. In the past five weeks we have received no reports of incidents of any crimes in this area and we hope that our work continues to make this area a safer place to live."

CALL THE POLICE HOTLINE: 777 2346, 2352 or 2320.