Mansfield resident’s needle clear-up anger

A resident on a Mansfield street has hit out after used drug needles were dumped in the garden of an empty neighbouring house.
22 Birks Road, Ladybrook estate, Mansfield, where used needles have been dumped on the front garden.22 Birks Road, Ladybrook estate, Mansfield, where used needles have been dumped on the front garden.
22 Birks Road, Ladybrook estate, Mansfield, where used needles have been dumped on the front garden.

The dirty syringes were scattered across the doorstep of the house on Birks Road on the Ladybrook estate.

But when neighbour James Hawke rang the estate agents trying to sell the property - they contacted the property owner for the garden to be cleaned up from the potentially-deadly needles.

But according to James (43), they failed to clear all of them, and despite contacting the estate agents again, they still remain scattered in the front garden three weeks after first contacting them.

James, who has lived on the street for more than 25 years said: “Whoever they got in to clear them only did half a job.

“They removed the ones at the back door.

“The ones at the front were behind a bush and on the path, but they seemed to have moved some of them to the step and left them.

“My wife phoned them again and they said they would get it sorted, but they are still there.

“There are kids up and down the street and they could wander in and anything could happen.

“We’ve never had this problem but the most annoying thing is that they didn’t do a proper job.”

Meanwhile, estate agents David Blount said they had every sympathy with Mr Hawke, and had done what they could by contacting the owner.

Director for the Mansfield company, Neil Temple, said: “I understand we received a phone call and we passed it on to our client.

“As far as I understand it, we received a second call, so we contacted the owner and rang the council but because it’s private property they said they couldn’t do anything- even though it’s an open plan garden.

He said the company had been trying to sell the property for the past three or four months, and that regular inspections were carried out, but it was up to the owners to deal with such matters.

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