to be dreading this weekend?

[notveryinventive]

I am absolutely crapping myself about the weather this weekend. I live in a council estate and do not get on very well round here at all. We are sometimes targets for pranks played by the local children such as banging knocking on the door (sometimes the window) and running away, throwing the odd stone at the windows and general snide remarks and looks when we are out in the street (ie going to the shop or whereever). Just before christmas they were pouring water onto the road to make an ice rink, but they were also scraping this ice and throwing at my house. Last year in the heavy snow they spend well over 2 hours throwing snowballs at our house along with trying to push it through the letter box (DH was holding it down) and running at the door.

Its going to snow here from tomorrow afternoon and through the night and because of the dry weather it will settle so now (naturally) I am petrified of a repeat performance of last year. What makes it worse is that back in November we were offered another house in a really nice village, which we are looking to accept. Though we need to view it first and we cant view it until they have finished getting it ready, but because we are not emergency they are doing more than normal to it and decorating it (they could have moved us in weeks ago and given us decorating vouchers - although I would have been more than happy to have just paid for it myself if it meant I was moved sooner). We still dont know how long its going to take, but I feel as though we shouldnt be where we are any more.

Im not trying to suggest that council estates are bad areas, but just trying to paint a picture of what I live around. We do seem to live in the worst street in this area, Ive even seen housing exchange adverts say will live anywhere in area X, but not street Y (my street). Anyway I am absolutley shitting myself and cant do anything about it :(

Sorry for rambling I just wanted to get it off my chest.

rhonda I have logged previous incidents and will be telling him if anything happens this weekend. The house we are in now took us 3 months to move in. With both houses we have been offered them before work was carried out. The preious tennants in our current house were thrown out and therefore vandalised the property. With our new place the housing manager has decided to fully decorate the property. I think its strange because surely they are losing money as we havent signed any contracts so obviously not paying any rent there. Plus houses round here are really sought after. You'd think that my current council would want us out so they can get another family housed

I will get in touch again on monday. Last I heard was on the 10th Jan she said it will be 4 weeks (taking us to 7th Feb) possibly longer. I did say sorry to pester you, but we're looking forward to being out of here and mentioned about the eggs on the window (this was the day after one was thrown) and no its not a new property.

That's really bizarre.

Especially as at the end you could turn round and say actually, no thanks I've changed my kind, and they have to start the allocation process all over again.

I'd lays it on thick with them. I think you are so close to getting out of where you are it's best to focus on that. Good things ae about to happen. Hang on in there.

Im actually counting down the hours till half 7 on sunday night when all the children will be inside. Yes I do have problems with them here, but at least they are in at a decent time (infact school doesnt even seem to have an impact with this as they were in by 7 tonight) Just hope that the snow on sat night doesnt give the adults licence to let the children stay out longer, will have even less chance of police (or community support officers) coming out as they will surely be needed in town being a sat night and lots of drunk people about.

rhonda crossed posts there. I am hanging in there and just looking forward to moving. The only problem is now it is very rural and the snow may just put us back a bit (luckily we are 5 weeks credit with rent) so may have to wait even longer if its difficult to get there. Also we are not going to say no, we have seen the house 3 times. The first there was a maintainance guy there and we asked him if we could have a quick walk round. This was in November. We went again between christmas and new year and had a peek in the windows and drove up again last sat and could see the walls were no longer deep dark colours, but were brilliant white. I want to be out of here ASAP so will definately not say no. While we are in line for this one we are not allowed to express our interest in any other.

Bless you. I really feel for you and your family. If you feel frightened then you shouldn't hesitate to call 999. Also, if you don't have to go out tomorrow or aren't expecting visitors then do freeze up you front path as the other posters suggested.

Another thought. You haven't got any friends who have big, noisy dogs who would fancy popping round to yours for the evening tomorrow? Bit of a long shot I know but noise alone would send the shites scampering surely?

I hope your move comes quickly op.

We are in now until school on monday - unless by some miracle it doesnt snow and we are driving out to my parents on sunday, but there will be no major crisis then. Just going to stay indoors and they probably wont even realise we are in (the car wont be outside as I rent a garage off the council - too scared to leave it out) as the time with the ice before christmas they genuinely thought we were out, I heard them say so.

I want to go upstairs and stick my earphones on and block out all noise, but i know DH will get worked up and dont want to leave him to it. He wont do anything, but he will get annoyed by it.

This is awful. Push them as hard as you can on Monday to get the keys.

I know you won't refuse it, I didn't mean you would, just that they don't know that.

I'll do an anti snow dance for you later.

Is there anything I could say that would make them push it through quicker? I was only in silver band (there is emergency, gold, silver and bronze) as I am downsizing by 1 bedroom (from a 4 to a 3). So as far as anyone in housing is concerned there is no need to get me out of here ASAP. Aparently to get into gold my life would have to be in danger and of course it isnt.

Thanks for the anti snow dance, just wish it would do some good.

But they have given you the house so the bandings don't matter now. There must be no one in gold band for the house. So it's now about how long they let the house sit with accruing void loss.

I'd just be honest with them that you are at end of tether. And tell them you need out of where you are and you don't mind painting yourself. I'm really baffled why they are happy to have the house sitting empty.

Im actually a bit worried that someone will go to that council and be homeless so they will put them in the house and I have to start again, they wont do that will they? Every week I keep checking im not allowed to 'bid' on a property as "Ive already been offered a property"

I will see what happens this weekend, if something does happen then I will try to push it a bit, otherwise I will just find out whats happening and I will mention how surely they are losing money on the house. All she keeps saying is that the keys are with the maintainence people and when they get them back it will be ready then and they will get in touch.

I think if it's on offer to you it's off the list of available properties.

How's the weekend shaping up so far?

Do you have a hose pipe, or even an upstairs window and a bucket? I'd be tempted to drown the little fuckers - if they like playing with ice so much, let's see how they like being covered in it .

Can you imagine em trying to push stuff through the letter box, only to be blasted by a jet of freezing water coming out of it? And I'd love to say can you imagine them then explaining that one to their parents, who would probably kill them say nothing and blame you!

Thanks rhonda for putting my mind at ease regarding the new house. It is one of my worries that they'll move another family in there who literally have nowhere else to go so we'll be stuck. Nothing as yet as there has been no snow, its due to us about 3PM onwards and heavily overnight. Its dry outside so will lay. I got up this morning and looked at the weather forecast in the hope some wind from an opposite direction would have come and taken it away or turned it to rain, but no such luck

Love it MyCar . DH wants to get a pellet gun and fire it from the windows. Obviously he is only joking and wouldnt even if I did let him.

In 34 hours it will be half 7 tomorrow night and they will all be inside and whatever we have to deal with it will all be over. I have just resigned myself to the fact that it will snow, it will lay and we will be bombarded with snowballs. If we dont then that is a bonus. Im actually hoping that this year the new family accross the road will put a stop to it if they need to (2 of their children are 2 who are likely to be doing it) unlike the woman last year (diagonally accross from us who lives next door to the new family) who just watched them and was laughing and joking along with them :( She's never there anymore as she has a new boyfriend and is often at his house. Will see what happens, my fingers are crossed and I still have hope, but have to be realistic into expecting the worst then I wont be taken by surprise or be disappointed (too much)

I feel for you op, we lived on a rough council estate for 2 years, the worst 2 years of our lives! We had kids throwing stones, cutlery, CDs etc at the windows and over the fence into the garden where DC were playing. Adults were out boozing in the street with their kids at 3am, blah blah blah.

Anyway, we were offered another house and downsized from a 3 bed to a 2 bed and, like you, had to wait a couple of months to move because of some remedial work needed on the new house. I worried constantly the offer would be retracted for some reason, I even rang them up and asked if the house was definitely ours, because I didn't want to push my luck and actually start packing.

Hang in there, it's crap but you'll get through it.

Thanks sausage We have got all sorts of rubbish in our garden. None of it is ours, but if we clear it then more get in. We've kind of given up with that now.

I know we will get through it, just got to be patient. No snow yet and no kids out either, but there's still time.

Update: Its coming down fast now and laying. There are also some children in the street (the first sign of them all day), so just waiting to see if anything happens now.

Dont panic, and DO call the police if you are being harassed.

I caught a load of burglars on my old estate; everytime I heard a crash, I dialled 999 and reported a burglary in progress.
I was right everytime, and the little sods got caught red handed.

I think your situation IS hate crime, and therefor IS an emergency, so you need to be considered to be in the emergency band.

I would bloody well call the council first thing Monday and tell them that, and that you want the keys NOW or you will have to take "drastic action".
That doesn't really mean anything, but they won't know that.

On the positive side: You ARE moving. Imagine if you hadnt been able to be rehoused? You would have to move out and pay private rents instead, and take it from me, that's no picnic!

Don't forget-call the council, Hell, call the papers if thats what it takes, but get your keys.

Just had the first snowball at my house :( Am now shaking.

I will chase the house up on monday.

Call the police if it carries on! I'm serious!
It's harrassment and threatening behavious and illegal.

Yep the hose sounds like a good idea to me

It was only the one. For now anyway. We've still got another couple of hours of today left (well that the kids will be out in the street anyway) and there's always tomorrow. There's nothing coming that will get rid of it.

There seems to be a big debate about if snow is good or not. For some reason the people who like snow seem to get really offended at offended at people who dont like snow. Thats what Ive seen today on FB anyway. Is it becoming one of those topics best to avoid I wonder?