A South London estate has been described as the “ugliest street” in its borough, with residents feeling too embarrassed to have friends and family over due to all the rubbish left outside.
The Woodlands Grove estate sits just a five minute walk from the stunning Greenwich Park and a ten minute bus ride from the O2 Arena.
However, locals on the estate feel the local council has allowed the area to “rot away slowly” in recent years.
Rachel Turner, 31, has lived in the Woodlands Grove estate with her partner for three years.
She said the estate often has rubbish dumped outside it, and she has given up on reporting the issue to the council after raising it two years ago.
Ms Turner told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “When I come home from work, there’s mattresses and tables here.
"It’s frustrating because it’s right where I live and I don’t like having friends around. The first thing they see is a bunch of rubbish. We’ve had mattresses, chairs, toilets, cupboards, wardrobes.”
She added: “It’s really frustrating because you want it to be presentable. When you have people come into your apartment, you make your apartment all nice and tidy, but then on the outside, it’s just rubbish here.
"That doesn’t look nice at all. You want to make it a bit more presentable, you’re paying a fortune to live here.”
The resident said the chipped wooden panels on the outside of the estate have gotten so “gross” that her partner said he would paint them himself if he was given the tools.
She said residents on the estate feel like they’ve been “dumped and left” there by Greenwich Council as they focus on other housing projects.
Ms Turner said: “Sometimes [the gate] is left open, and I’m paying for my safety. If it’s not closed then anyone can get in.
"There’s no safety there. You’re basically paying for what you don’t deserve.”
She added: “With Greenwich [Council], they’re good, especially with all the houses they’ve been doing down there. They [the houses] are absolutely beautiful, but they kind of just stop at one point and just leave it to kind of just rot away slowly.
"This is the problem, I think, because there’s just so much going on here and they focus too much on places like Greenwich Park and the O2.
"More money is going into that than the little places of just living space.”
Labour Councillor Majid Rahman said at a Greenwich Council meeting in December last year that residents of Woodlands Grove were unable to sell their homes and had mortgage applications refused because of the condition of the estate.
He said residents were told by the council in 2016 that the estate would be upgraded and refurbished in the next five years, but are yet to see the work begin.
Abiodun Oliagbe, 69, has lived on the estate with his family for four years. He said that earlier this year, his flat started leaking whenever it rains and has since caused mould to grow in his bedroom.
Mr Oliagbe told the LDRS: “We have reported it to the council but they have not done anything about it. Water is coming in.
"We have tried to contact them but nothing has been done really. It is not good for our own health.”
Aside from the leak, Mr Oliagbe said he has also noticed the estate being more dirty recently.
He said the council was also meant to cover several exposed pipes in his flat from when the boiler was replaced last year.
Mr Oliagbe said: “The council are just dilly dallying, there’s nothing being done. It was supposed to be covered but it’s just been left like this for more than a year.”
Dawn Brown, 54, said she had noticed problems in the estate from when she first moved in nearly four years.
She said at the end of last year, several bricks from the outside wall of a flat several storeys above her fell at her feet while she was sitting in the garden.
She told the LDRS: “All of them came down. I was sitting down there and they all came down and [the council] have done nothing.
"I heard them when they hit the floor. [I felt] scared because now you just have to keep watching when you come out just to make sure nothing else comes down and the council haven’t done nothing about it.”
Ms Brown said she had to clear the rubble from the bricks herself. She said she has also been waiting six months for new worktops to be added to her flat, and was told by the council that she had to fix her own bathroom door.
She said: “It’s not my flat, it’s theirs. I pay just to rent it, not do their repairs. They just don’t do nothing anymore.
"It’s annoying because I can’t afford to pay out to do it myself. It’s just so annoying. I don’t know what we pay rent for to be honest.”
Cllr Rahman said at the December council meeting that work on the nearby Sam Manners House, a new £11million set of council homes beside the estate, had put a “negative contrast” on Woodlands Grove.
Labour Councillor Pat Slattery, cabinet member for housing for Greenwich Council, agreed that the estate looked “particularly galling next to Sam Manners House”.
She said the estate would be surveyed for external repairs in the new year, but could not confirm when work would begin.
She said at the meeting: “I have spoken to officers and as part of our external decorations programme, we are about to survey [Woodlands Grove] to consult with residents on what we find and then package it all together and tender for it early in the new year.”
Dale Millikan, 35, bought a flat facing the Woodlands Grove estate last month. He said that when he and his partner were putting an offer on the property, their first question was what was going to happen to the “sad looking building” across the street.
Mr Millikan told the LDRS: “I feel for these guys, it’s their home. It doesn’t look overly safe for anyone, and there’s kids that live in there too. But for us, I just think it’s a bit of a disgrace, because [Sam Manners House] is getting built, and these guys have been left out in the cold.”
He added: “Someone actually said to me, ‘You’ve just bought a house on the ugliest street in Greenwich,’ and that’s not fair. Greenwich is typically known to be beautiful. You’ve got Blackheath which is beautiful.
"You’ve got that street round the corner that’s really pretty. Why can’t they just look after everyone? There’s such inequality street by street… It seems to be just the street that’s been forgotten.”
A Greenwich Council spokesperson told the LDRS: “Renovation work at the Woodland Grove estate is expected to start in this financial year.
"We plan to improve external parts of the block, including some concrete repairs and replacement of the timber railings. We’re arranging a meeting with residents in October to discuss the planned works and get their views.”
They said that the council’s repair team would be addressing other issues in the estate and was contacing residents who had flagged issues in their homes.
The grass on the estate will also reportedly be cut as soon as possible and maintained, with a new performance work programme being introduced to prevent the site being missed again.
They added: “The council is committed to tackling fly tipping and we’ve removed 25 fly tips from the area in the past eight months alone. We’re also prepared to take enforcement action where necessary, including fining a local business £400 in June last year for fly tipping on the estate.
"We’d encourage anyone who spots fly tipping to report it to the council on its website. We urge anyone wanting to dispose of waste to book a bulky waste collection service, or take their waste to our Reuse and Recycling Centre in Nathan Way for free.”
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Picture 1-2: Mr Oliagbe said a leak started in his flat earlier this year. Permission for use by all LDRS partners. Credit: Joe Coughlan
Picture 3: Rachel Turner, 31, has lived in the Woodlands Grove estate with her partner for three years. Permission for use by all LDRS partner. Credit: Joe Coughlan
Picture 4-5: A resident said people on the estate feel like they’ve been “dumped and left” by the council. Permission for use by all LDRS partners. Credit: Joe Coughlan
Picture 6: A resident described the wooden panelling on the estate as “gross”. Permission for use by all LDRS partners. Credit: Joe Coughlan
Picture 7: A resident said people on the estate feel like they’ve been “dumped and left” by the council. Permission for use by all LDRS partners. Credit: Joe Coughlan
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