A few miles east of Rotherham is Maltby. A former mining town in South Yorkshire, it lies in the heart of the Rother Valley – a constituency that, until 2019, always had a Labor MP.
This time, as the candidates fight, residents of one neighborhood are determined to make the disrepair of their homes a main focus of the campaign. election campaign here.
Their property is called Little London – named after the original purpose of rehoming Second World War munitions workers from Enfield – but it’s not hard to see how it earned its nickname Little Beirut.
In the center of the townhouses is a row of empty houses that have been decaying for about a decade and are now in such disrepair that the street looks like a war zone.
Locals call the buildings Abandoned, and walking past the boarded-up windows and damaged concrete walls, it feels like you’re in northeast Ukraine rather than northeast Sheffield.
Aaron Fuller’s home faces this eyesore, and he is among the parents on the property who live in fear that their two children will play on an abandoned construction site.
He worries about the broken glass and bare wires scattered around the unfenced area: “It’s a death trap. It’s a matter of time before someone gets hurt.”
Fuller and his family are typical residents here, who rent their homes from different owners.
He works in construction and his wife is a paramedic, describing himself and his neighbors as “good, hard-working people who have been forced to live with so much mess for so long.”
Aaron Fuller worries about his children playing at abandoned construction site
The buildings have been in decay for about a decade
A banner on empty properties says renovation work will begin this year. But Fuller insists they’ve heard it all before and seen no progress.
And, he says, people have put up with this for a long time because they are afraid of the consequences of making noise.
It’s a difficult situation faced by many thousands of private renters across the country – unwilling to leave the communities they have been a part of for decades and unable to earn enough to own their properties.
“I think it’s become the status quo, where people are so afraid to complain,” says Fuller.
“They’re worried about things like Section 21 no-fault evictions,” he explains.
“People have been forced to live in these properties because they can’t afford anything better.”
Many of residents’ homes are plagued by damp due to their more than 80-year-old design and quick, cheap construction.
They all have flat roofs that leak and poorly installed windows and doors. Bathrooms are often lined with a layer of polystyrene that perishes.
Denise McBride spends her days cleaning mold from the walls of her home. Every morning she turns her grandson’s mattress on its side to keep him away from the damp bedroom wall.
Denise McBride suffered the effects of mold in her home
She claims the industrial cleaning products she was forced to use so often destroyed her sinuses.
And she’s determined to make tenants’ rights an election issue. When asked who she blames, she draws a list.
“I blame the owners. But I also blame the council for letting them get away with it. I blame the government for having all the laws on the owners’ side so little people like us don’t have any rights.” Mrs. McBride says.
She joined a group of residents who have had enough.
Some of the mold found in Little London houses
At the nearby cafe they hold regular meetings and we sat at one of them with half a dozen locals.
They have formed a campaign group, Big Power for Little London, and have held protest events that are gaining momentum and attracting candidates contesting the next general election.
They say they won’t stop until they see real change.
“Let’s stand up for ourselves and make this better,” McBride says.
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Fuller agrees: “It’s David and Goliath. It’s that old story.
“What happened here is what you call Yorkshire courage.”
Rotherham Council says it is “committed to continuing to work proactively with the residents of Little London and the relevant authorities, such as South Yorkshire Police, to resolve the immediate difficulties they face”.
“We are also working with residents to present a long-term solution for the property while adhering to the appropriate legal processes.”
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The director of Rivergrove Limited, a London-based property company that owns The Derelicts, told Sky News: “The company has been actively looking at options for these buildings and has applied for planning permission at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds to demolish and rebuild abandoned houses and awaits the outcome of this request.
“Rivergrove does not deal directly with rentals and evictions as this is done by a professional local agent on our behalf who has no negotiations or involvement in the planning or decisions regarding the future of the derelict properties.”
“As far as we know, none of the residents involved in the campaign are Rivergrove tenants.”
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
