Furious tenants have been threatened with court action and given ‘ASBO’ warnings for putting up bamboo screens to protect their properties from nosey bus passengers.
Council tenants of the street in Dartford, Kent, said the absence of suitable fencing is an unacceptable intrusion in their privacy and have likened it to ‘living in the Big Brother house’ as passers-by can look in their properties.
Large hoardings used to be in place when the social homes were nearing completion but they have since been replaced with smaller 5ft black railings.
Residents claim their back gardens – which front two busy main roads in and out of the Temple Hill estate – are left exposed and are constantly littered with rubbish, including bags of dog mess and discarded face masks.
Peeping passengers using local bus services, which stop outside every 10 minutes, are also said to be peering into homes and ‘speaking inappropriately’ to small children who have nowhere else to play.
Gaps and the size of the railings also mean pets can easily escape into the road and drugs have even been found in some yards.
Tenants have asked for the height of the railings to be raised and covered.
Dartford council said it is ‘aware of concerns’ and previously changed the fence to try and help the tenants, while complying with planning conditions and the ‘street scene’.
The council is encouraging residents to get in touch with the authority directly so it can keep an ‘open dialogue’ about potential options.
It comes after some fed up tenants took matters into their own hands during the pandemic and erected bamboo screens and fence panels.
They were later told by the council to remove these, either themselves or at a clean-up cost calculated by the authority of £243.49 each.
Some residents have been threatened with court action and handed community protection warning letters over their ‘anti-social behaviour’ and its perceived ‘detrimental effect’.
ASBOs (anti-social behaviour orders) were introduced under Tony Blair in 1998 to crack down on perceived ‘anti-social behaviour’.
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