3 days ago
'Our lives have been a misery since nightmare council tenants moved in ten years ago'
A retired couple have endured more than 'ten years of misery' and anti-social behaviour after new council tenants moved into their Kingstanding street.
The couple says their neighbours play loud music in their garden via a 'sound system' and bang on the walls, keeping them up in the early hours. They also fly-tip rubbish, attract rats and mice into the area, and have been 'aggressive' towards them.
Harry, 83, and Shirley, 77, have pleaded for help from Birmingham City Council for the past decade - even seeing the neighbours added to the 'watchlist' - but only for the problems to persist.
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In a tearful interview with BirminghamLive, the couple, who were looking forward to their retirement before the problems, said: "It's anti-social sounds, banging, loud music, children screaming, running up and down the street at night.
"It's awful now, it used to be lovely, now you don't know what you're going to get from one minute to the next. They have large parties starting at midday, going on until late, and the music vibrates through the house. We can't even sit out in the garden."
"Eleven years ago, a family came to live there and ever since then it's been an absolute nightmare," added their son. "It's ten, eleven years of hell basically for my mum and dad."
"It's music playing until all hours of the morning, not like via a Bluetooth speaker like most people, we're talking about PA systems constantly."
For years, the couple and their son have been complaining to the council in an urgent bid for action.
Monitoring equipment was even implemented at the property to gather evidence on the noise and anti-social behaviour, but the 'nightmare' neighbours are always told this is happening by the council.
"They have to let them know, so obviously it went quiet for a few months," their son said. "They knew they were on the watch list, then three days after they came off it, they had a massive party.
"My mum asked them to turn it down and about 60 people started chanting ''let's make some noise.'"
A trigger point meeting was held in May, and 14 actions were recommended. Surveys have now been sent to several other neighbours.
"They [the council] said to my mum yesterday, 'sometimes we just have to accept cultural differences' but this has nothing to do with culture or religion, it's to do with anti-social behaviour," explained their son.
"It's the volume of the noise, the number of people that come and go. It's also the sanitary conditions, there are mice and rats that get into my parents'. It's just ongoing. The number of continual violations over the years.
"If you saw the state of the house from the outside, most normal people would be shocked. It's all dirty, not kept in any condition at all. The front has all the litter in it, the fence is all broken, kids in the evening constantly go up screaming, shouting until like 11pm.
"Two weeks ago there were two toddlers in nappies running up and down the road nearly getting run over. There's so many things that go on continually."
Birmingham City Council confirmed an ASB case review request was submitted in February this year.
A spokesperson said: 'In line with the statutory process, the case was reviewed and considered by an independent panel on May 7, 2025. The panel made a number of recommendations to the relevant agencies involved.
'Since then, the Reviewing Officer has been in contact with the Housing Officer to monitor progress against those recommendations. We understand that some actions have been completed, and discussions are ongoing to ensure the remaining recommendations are addressed.
'As part of the process, we continue to review the current status of the case and ensure all appropriate steps are being taken.
'Birmingham City Council remains committed to working with partners to tackle anti-social behaviour and support affected residents.'
