To be utterly sick to death of my neighbourhood?

[nomoreheels]

Tonight I was watching TV when I heard voices outside. I could tell they were possible troublemakers by the way they were talking/laughing so I went to check from upstairs. Saw three lads hanging out right by my front gate acting up. Then they stole my birdfeeder and went into the park, where they smashed it up on the dog waste bin, all the while laughing and swearing.

I am 18 weeks P so obviously my hormones are playing a part, but it made me so angry that I burst into tears. I wanted to chase them down but I know better - they were the types who might come back with a brick for my window as a thank you. However I am SICK to death of scallies.

In the past year and a half we have had:

6 lads smash in our side window and try to kick our front door in (they only didn't finish the job as we drove up as they were in the process, and ran off) This then caused us huge amounts of stress getting a new window and door through the insurers, plus we had to pay the excess which was £200. Police were unable to catch anyone.

2 thieving scum kids break into our car (which we had for only two weeks) and try to hotwire it, but when they were unsuccessful they trashed it beyond repair and stole the internal part of the cd player (we had the pop out bit in the house). Again, police were unable to catch anyone even though we phoned 999 while we watched it happen (they warned us not to go out for our own safety) - police arrived too late to catch them.

We were so freaked out that we refused to get another car - not that we could afford to, as it was a banger and we got less for it from the insurers than we'd paid for it + recent repairs.

Over the 3.5 years we have been here, we've had countless problems with kids drinking and fighting in the park next to our house. Once two gangs (totalling around 30 lads) turned up and started fighting outside our house. Another time we witnessed a lad get attacked by two lads in the park, they smashed a bicycle on his head/torso. There was blood everywhere and he was unconscious.

I had to put up an almighty fight with the council and police to get them to remove a bench and picnic table that were attracting antisocial behaviour on Friday and Saturday nights. It's helped but I'm still on edge every summer and I have to call the police out a lot.

There are constantly lads riding scooters and quadbikes in the park, tearing up the grass and riding dangerously.

To anyone who says that we should be giving all teens a chance and that they get a bad rap in the press, I beg to differ. I think some of the kids round here are just beyond help and frankly, a waste of anyone's time. I don't care if you're poor and bored, it's no excuse.

I am so angry that I can't live in relative peace and safety without worrying about who is going to be coming by our house. I am so angry with myself that we were stupid enough to take a chance on a house in a mixed/up and coming area. It is a beautiful house - 3 bed victorian, original features. We have tried hard to make it a wonderful home but my heart just isn't in it.

I am so angry that these kids aren't being disciplined and raised to be decent. Everytime I walk round the local precinct I see some terrible examples of parenting.

I am also angry for some of the locals who I know are decent people - retired couples, nice families - who are trying to live a decent life. Unfortunately we are all affected by this group of antisocial yobs, and nothing ever seems to change despite all the antisocial behaviour projects you hear about.

And we can't move - we tried already last year and put the house on the market - but the market had slumped and we would have taken at least a £10k hit on what we paid for it, which we just can't afford.

I really, really don't want to be here. I certainly don't want my child to grow up around them so we need to be gone before they start school. I pray we will be able to sell in a year or two but I bet we will be lucky to break even, and we'll be back to square one on the property ladder.

Anyhow, I just really needed to rant. Thanks for listening.

Could you rent yours out and use the rent for a rental elsewhere until the market does pick up a bit?

I dont have any suggestions but I do feel for you as it must be very worrying especially being pregnant. Big hugs to you.

We could, but there would be approximately a £330 shortfall between our mortgage payment and the potential rental income each month. And we'd have to swap to a buy to let mortgage which I've been advised would be difficult at the moment. (Our mortgage provider has gone belly up and so they are not offering new products, but are just honouring existing mortgages at the current terms.)

Maybe it's time to look at that again though... just in case.

Thanks.

I feel your pain, we live opposite a park. Imo that's the main factor - I would never live near a park again.

Just bide your time and sell up. In the meantime, report everything. We've got an email address for the safer neighbourhood team - also a couple of police numbers.

You get a patchy response I find, but when you speak to the right person, they are keen to get witness statements for things, especially number plates etc.

Not much help I know, but empathy here!

That's awful,where are you living? has it always been this bad or is it getting worse?

What do the police suggest? Would they consider installing a CCTV camera in/near your house so they have visual evidence of the perpetrators? They could then hopefully 'do something' to make your life (and the neighbourhood in general) better and safer.

I see it as though you have little choice other than to ask them, seriously about converting the loan.

Could you look at renting the rooms out as more of a bedsit arrangement, one of the properties we used to have we did this and it raised much more than it would have done if we'd rented the flat to one tenant IYCWIM.

This is hell for you at the moment, investigate every avenue.

nomoreheels - I feel your pain.
We were in the same situation around 5 years ago - moved into an area that had a good reputation and saw it move rapidly downhill over a 4-5 year period. In the end it was horrendous and I couldn't stand it any more - luckily we were able to sell up (if we'd waited even another 6 months I'm sure we wouldn't have been so lucky).

We've been in our new home 5 years now but still remember how awful it felt.

One route we were planning to take if we couldn't sell was to either rent the house out to a family or convert to flats and rent to student -would it be possible for you to rent your house out and move somewhere else if you can't sell just now?

Hope things get better for you!!!

Thanks everyone, it helps to get some nice comments. I really feel so fed up.

Youtalkintome, I forgot to add that I have spent hours and hours working with the local police to get some help. We have a Friday/Sat night project that I can ring for more immediate help than the general number. I have had visits and emails aplenty from the police. I have had meetings with the staff from the park. Things get better for a while and then they lose interest and we stop hearing from people. They promised to look into locking the gates at night and then suddenly it was too much work and they didn't have funding for staff. The park manager in particular is an arse who writes me snide letters and seems to think we are complaining about park security because we have nothing better to do!

I know we have to sit it out for a while. It just gets to me.

Dreadful. :(

I have to say, I think I would take the risk of a £10k loss for the sake of my peace of mind and sanity.

You shouldnt have to live like this, nobody should.

If you are with northern rock it's also worth asking if the will give you a discount rate as you can't afford the one you have.....I think there standard is a ludicrously high and unreasonable 9% or similar......

Phone the police every time it happens. If you do that, it gets pushed up the list of issues they need to deal with. I live by a park and there used to be problems in the past. However, we now have an active park watch scheme, and the police respond to issues, as they are phoned every time.

I can't believe they don't lock the park up at night. I know that both parks in my town are definitely locked at night. Thought this was standard park procedure.

Wow, lots of comments - thank you so much everyone.

I guess I worry that if we rent it out, the tenants will hate it too and it will cause us more stress when they want to leave! Of course we could try for a 6 month tenancy and see how it goes. I will look into swapping the mortgage again. Bedsit is a good idea, think we'd have to find some money to do a few things to make it a multiple occupancy house but it could be do-able.

Police are sympathetic, but they were banging their heads against a brick wall with the park manager who refused to consider locking the park up at night. Kids use it as an escape route and they can't catch anyone. They do patrol but not very late at night when the real problems start.

I also got my MP involved, he wrote loads of letters for me which I think helped get rid of the park benches etc but then the help dried up. Personally I am just so tired of having to do all this work for a quiet life.

P.s. I live in North Manchester, our street is ok but we are about a mile from some dodgy estates and there are also lots of terraces rented out a few roads down that we now realise home some shady types. It always seemed quiet when we visited it to test it out, just goes to show you can never know how things will turn out...

I feel for you, it sounds awful. I think you need to report every incident of antisocial behavour to the police, local councillor, mp etc. Make yourself a total nuisance and ask them what is being done to prevent it. This will have a much greater impact if other residents do this too. Highlight certain days/times when the antiocial behaviour usually occurs and request greater police presence at these times.

Ultimately you need to move house. Easy for me to say, but sometimes selling up and losing money is worth it if your quality of life would significantly improve.

Sorry I didn't mean I don't believe you OP, just that it's hard to see why they wouldn't lock the gates at night. What's the point of having gates then?

It sounds horrid and exactly why we moved house nearly 4 years ago. Our old house was a beautiful cottage but our nightmare next door neighbour was violent and had parties every weekend and a few notorious kids from the local estate would ride mini scooters around at all hours and fight and people would stand outside our house after being at the pub to shout their farewells before staggering off in different directions.

Could you move?

You are not allowed to be in any city park after dusk, of course enforcing this is difficult with current police manpower. The police seem to think that they should lock it at night by law but the park staff (Manchester city council) say that they do not have the money and staff to do this. I have asked my MP to look into this with no further response.

I know that Heaton Park, another park not too far from me, gets locked up at night and has proper security, but they are Bury Council and so have different funding. It's also a posher area so I guess they get better treatment.

I'm with Bradford & Bingley and we are on 6.3% on a repayment, 10 year fixed rate but we can leave without cancellation fees as they are desperate for everyone to go. However I don't think other lenders would take us on for a remortgage let alone a b-t-l as our house value has dropped and so we have no equity. And we have no money to spare.

I am surprised that the park manager has the auhority to ignore the police requests? I presume the park is council owned? It should be a council decision not a park manager one. Have you contacted the council officer/manager who is in charge of recreational space in the area? Can't you and the residents arrange a formal meeting with the council and have a police officer in attendance to reinforce the concerns and incidents that have occurred?

Nothingmore to add really just :( at your situation, your home should be a place of refuge , an escape not a cause of stress and anguish.

Do you have anywhere to go just to recharge your batteries / chill out ?

Could the local residents share the responsibility of locking the gate on a rota basis if the Council are unwilling to fund it.

Could you write to the evening news and see of that shames them into action?

Could you complain to the boss of the unresponsive park manager?

CCTV?

Neighbourhood Watch scheme?

Take photographs of the ani social behaviour and send them to the local press/council?

There is one CCTV camera on another road, two roads down. The park say they have no money to install one in the park.

I have asked for further lighting in the road from my MP but the response from the council was that there was no money to improve lighting. They did give me a slightly brighter bulb, thanks!

I offered to help with a NW scheme but the local bobbies polled the houses around the park and no one was interested in joining. :(

TBH I feel the fight has gone from me. I used to spend hours every week phoning, writing emails, writing to my MP etc. It was draining my energy and taking over my life. We have had a few small successes and thankfully haven't had an attempted break in again, but I do think the park situation will never fully change. You can't change people, and they won't lock it and fund more secuirty.

I am so stressed thinking about what it will be like with a newborn baby (due 3 June) and being on edge.

I will look into the renting out/buy to let again, and will get a new valuation on the house just in case things have moved on in the last year. We really can't afford a loss right now though, not with a baby on the way and my wages going down due to ML.

And no, I haven't really got anywhere to go and stay - my family live abroad and DPs only have a tiny two bed where I don't think I'd do much relaxing!