A RESIDENT claims police and the local housing association are failing to act against troublemakers on his estate he has labelled “animals”.

The man, who does not want to be named for fear of repercussions, said police and Thirteen had given up responding to repeated complaints about anti-social behaviour on the Portrack estate in Stockton.

He said he had been threatened and his car damaged after previously speaking out against his neighbours and could not sleep at night as a result of his experience living there.

Speaking to The Northern Echo, he reported:

  • Fights where people regularly armed themselves with knives and baseball bats
  • Addicts trying to burgle flats and behaving like “zombies” because of the substances they were taking
  • All night noisy parties with people drinking in the streets into the early hours of the morning and screaming and shouting
  • Laser pointers being shined into properties, including his own bedroom in the middle of the night.

He said: “I am reluctant to call these people scum because they are fellow human beings, animals would be a better description.

“The police just don’t have the resources to answer every single complaint that comes through because it is complaint after complaint every single night about one resident or another.

“The attitude you get is ‘We know it’s a nightmare in Portrack, but there is nothing we can do’. They don’t want to know.”

The resident said two of his local ward councillors had secured cash for a security camera at a nearby parade of shops and it was pulled down the next day and destroyed.

He also said one elderly woman in her 80s had to literally push drug dealers out of her way in order to get to her front door and was met with a volley of abuse.

Referring to Thirteen, which has a number of properties on the estate, he said: “They are stockpiling wrong ‘uns in social housing here until such time the police have got the resources to go and nick them.

“It means good people are having to live among those who should be in the criminal justice system.

“Thirteen need a rocket to start following through on residents’ complaints. Some of their staff make you feel like it is your fault for complaining too much.

“It is a failure to protect ordinary, hard working tax payers from the worst excesses of society.”

Cleveland Police said it had instigated a day of action on the Portrack estate earlier this year which saw a number of drugs warrants executed and five arrests, while further prosecutions had taken place in relation to criminal damage and public order related offences.

A spokeswoman said: “Stockton Neighbourhood Policing Team hold monthly meetings with representatives from the local council and housing providers, including Thirteen, to discuss any issues of anti-social behaviour.

“There are designated mobile and foot patrols as part of Operation Impact, which provides resources to specific locations in line with reports of crime and anti-social behaviour.

“This includes the area of Portrack when such calls are received, in line with ongoing demand across Stockton.

“We would always encourage any residents to report incidents of anti-social behaviour to police and can assure them that it is being taken seriously and that work is ongoing on a daily basis to tackle it.”

A spokeswoman for Thirteen said: “We take the welfare of our tenants extremely seriously and work in partnership with the police and other agencies to resolve any issues that are raised.”

Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham said he had chaired a public meeting in Portrack which enabled residents to air concerns about anti-social behaviour and criminality.

He said: “There are major issues on the estate, but the public meeting resulted in a lot of action and a tremendous amount of resource was poured in over a concentrated period which led to drug arrests and evictions.

“Obviously serious complaints need to be followed up and investigated.

“The bottom line though is resource, the council have lost 40 odd per cent of their budget, the police have suffered tremendous cuts. They simply don’t have the resources they once had.”