'˜Would you pay £80 a week to live here?' Northampton housing tenant says it's time '˜nightmare' flats had a re-fit

Chris Tero, who has lived in Brammar house in Holyrood Road, St James for the past five years says he is at his wit’s end trying to get lockable doors and a car park barrier installed there.

But the night-shift warehouse worker, 27, says his attempts have fallen on deaf ears.

He claims he regularly returns home from work to find drug dealers exchanging goods in the car park and has to contended with a near constant stream of tipped rubbish in the hallways - accessible because of the lack of security on the front doors.

But his landlords, Orbit: Heart of England, seem reluctant to put in simple security measures or deal with complaints in a timely manner.

Mr Tero said: “It’s a nightmare living here.

“You can pull open the door and just walk in. You are free to run around and do what you want.

“The system on the front door is just so old, but they won’t do anything with it.

“I have been trying for five years now to make things better, but it’s getting beyond a joke.”

Mr Tero currently pays £80 a week in rent, though it is understood that may rise next year.

The recent lot of fly-tipping, which featured a fridge, a television and a trolley was not cleared up for a month.

Yesterday morning, Mr Tero returned home to find a drunk person “running” along the corridor.

Later that morning the fire alarm was triggered and left to ring for four hours according to residents there.

Cars have been damaged in the car park, an elderly man was assaulted and recently a set of soiled underwear was left in a tree for days without anyone coming to remove it.

In the past week one woman’s front door has been vandalised with paint and people have been found sleeping in the bin store.

Mr Tero had to replace the padlock himself.

He feels, like many of his neighbours, a car park barrier would help curb the anti-social behaviour in the car park and a new door would solve most of the problems inside.

“One day you can come back and there will be blood all up the walls,” he said.

“The next there will be people arguing all night. Something has to change.”

“We appreciate being made aware of the issues. Our Property Surveyor has

Head of housing at Orbit Heart of England, Kevin Hornsby, said: “Now inspected the damage to the communal door and raised an urgent order to repair it. 

“We will contact our customers directly to discuss the wider allegations and investigate them.

“If customers wish to discuss this or any other building maintenance issues then we ask that they contact us directly.

“If anyone witnesses a crime, then we ask that they report this to the local police who we work in close partnership with.”