Couple dwelling subsequent to ‘nightmare’ derelict house for greater than 40 years hit out at council as it’s focused by teenage vandals
A couple living next to a home derelict for more than 40 years have hit out at a council, accusing it of ignoring repeated pleas for help after the property was targeted by teenage vandals.
Kathleen and Tom Wilson, who are in their 70s, have been living next door to the abandoned property in Wingate, County Durham, since 1982.
Anti-social behaviour has been a problem at the house with teenagers repeatedly breaking in – and the pensioners told of it being an ‘absolute nightmare’.
The couple have received numerous letters from Easington Council from the early 2000s, apologising for the lack of action and promising solutions.
Durham County Council and various MP have repeatedly promised action.
In the house’s history of abandonment, it has been auctioned multiple times but nobody has turned up to refurbish the home.
The Wilsons moved into their home on Station Road in 1970, with their next door neighbour a woman in her 50s who was engaged to be married.
But the engagement fell through – and Mrs Wilson says the woman next door became a real-life Miss Havisham figure, reminiscent of a character in Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations.
Anti-social behaviour has been a problem at the house with teenagers repeatedly breaking in
The derelict house has been auctioned multiple times but nobody has ever turned up and refurbished the home
She says she had ‘no electricity and lit the house with candles’.
The neighbour was moved to a care home in 1982 and the house has remained empty ever since.
The couple have also spent hundreds of pounds over the years making repairs to the decaying that has slowly become more overgrown and unsafe.
Mr Wilson recently had to go up a ladder to replace boards which had been put up in the first floor windows which the council refused to repair.
Mrs Wilson told the BBC: ‘It has been an absolute nightmare – it’s unsafe around the back.
‘We are in our late 70s – how many more years are we going to have to live like this?’
