A RETIRED teacher washes his car as another pensioner is heard mowing his lawn in front of smart red brick houses on a hot summer morning.
But just a few doors down, residents claim, six men from Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea are crammed into a house that is one of many homes for migrants destroying the peace in this proud former mill town.
Andy Kelvin / KelvinmediaKim Balkwill complains she can smell cannabis from a nearby HMO used to house migrants[/caption]
Andy Kelvin / KelvinmediaRetired builder Martin Greaves says peace has been shattered in the area[/caption]
Locals in the area are angry at the overcrowding and lack of housing for Brits
Darren FletcherProtests outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, which a court ruled may have breached planning rules to accommodate migrants[/caption]
Locals in Horwich, on the outskirts of Bolton, have complained about late-night parties, overcrowding and drug-taking and blame the latest government migrant initiative.
The move, nicknamed Operation Scatter, has seen migrants being turfed out of expensive hotels and sent to live in houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) across the country.
And Horwich residents claim their town, in Greater Manchester, is bearing the brunt as hundreds of HMOs have sprung up in the area, with private landlords cashing in on £3,000-a-month rent to house migrants.
It is, they say, a sign of the potential problems that await communities if the Government is forced to find alternative housing for asylum seekers to hotels.
It follows Epping Forest District Council’s successful court battle over the use of The Bell Hotel to accommodate migrants, which is set to set to see a string of other councils launch legal challenges.
The number of HMOs residences in the Bolton area has risen from 170 to 720 in recent years, according to local authority data, although only some will be housing asylum seekers.
Locals are angry at the overcrowding, lack of housing for Brits and claims single parents with families have been evicted from homes, which have been turned into HMOs by private landlords eager to cash in.
Retired builder Martin Greaves, 71, who lives a few doors down from a migrant HMO, said: “It’s outrageous this is happening here.
“The town is being taken over by migrants living in HMOs. No one is happy about it.
“There is a smell of cannabis from the houses and I saw two drunk women go in there late at night recently.
“We feel they are being dumped on us here as we have no say in it.
“Tis is the wrong place to house migrants.
“It is shattering the peace of the place.”
Mum-of-two Kim Balkwill, 57, who was out walking her dog Toby, said: “There used to be no migrants here, now there’s loads of them.
“I just don’t understand why they’ve put them here.
“I live behind one and there is always the smell of cannabis coming from there.
“The houses should not be turned over to migrants when they are so many English people crying out for proper homes.”
‘It’s disgusting’
Builder Glen Howarth believes the Government needs to come up with more imaginative initiatives to find housing for migrants©AndyKelvin / Kelvinmedia
Darren FletcherEpping Forest District Council launched a legal challenge over The Bell Hotel after protests erupted in recent weeks[/caption]
Painting his fence, builder Glen Howarth, 50, added: “They shouldn’t be here living in HMOs in terrace houses.
“The Government are doing the right thing trying to get them out of expensive hotels but they should house them in old mills or something like that.
“Basically we have too many migrants coming to this country and we don’t have enough places for them to live.”
Residents have said that a single mum used to live in one house with her two kids in one of the terraced houses nearby, but she was kicked out with a section 21 no-fault eviction notice by her landlord.
They claim builders then turned the three-bed home into an HMO with locks and fire doors in every room and just after Christmas, a minibus pulled up outside and six men moved in.
One resident, who did not want to give her name, said: “It’s disgusting they kicked her out and brought migrants in.
“We haven’t seen her since and don’t know what happened to the family.”
‘I like living here’
Nader Mousvi says he feels safe in the UK and hopes to get a job as a chef©AndyKelvin / Kelvinmedia
Afghan asylum seeker Nader Mousvi, 36, lives in one of the HMOs in the area with five other men.
The chef, who arrived in Britain by plane, told The Sun: “I understand some people don’t want migrants here and I have seen the protests.
“But we don’t do any harm. The UK is a wonderful country and I like it here.
“I like living here. It was not safe for me in Afghanistan because of the Taliban.
“I feel safe here. I hope to get a job soon as a chef – I can cook all sorts of food.”
‘Operation Scatter’
Government contractor Serco has been advertising for private landlords to provide houses for migrants.
In an appeal with the heading “Are you a landlord?”, Serco has said it “will consider all types of properties”.
Campaign group just Say No to HMOs Horwich has pushed Bolton Council to introduce an Article 4 Direction, meaning all new HMOs now require planning permission.
Independent councillor David Grant, who has backed the group, said: “Ultimately so many HMOs have appeared in the last 12 months because of the Government’s decision to empty asylum hotels through Operation Scatter.
Plan B&B? The Sun’s view on Epping ruling
THE decision to ban migrants from The Bell Hotel in Epping is a massive victory for the ordinary mums and dads who stood up to protect their kids.
Their objections were never about race.
Instead, it was about safety and the suitability of housing dozens of young men — two of whom have since been charged with sex offences — in the small Essex town.
The High Court injunction in the local council’s favour — even if only temporary — should leave the Government’s asylum hotel policy in tatters.
It’s a measure of the Home Office’s desperation — and its callous disregard for the concerns of locals — that it attempted to hijack the case at the last minute.
Ludicrously, Government lawyers tried to argue that closing The Bell would spark violence across the country.
Yet the Epping protest has been largely peaceful.
It was only Essex Police’s abject handling of the initial demonstrations — and the decision to escort far-Left masked Antifa thugs into the melee — that sparked trouble.
The Government must now quickly find a viable alternative to the hotels.
Dumping large groups of illegal migrants in flats among families is another recipe for disaster. Instead they should be housed in temporary secure detention camps.
None of this would be necessary, of course, if Labour ever got close to making good on its promise to smash the people-smuggling gangs.
That seems further away than ever.
“[Serco] identify one area and then advertise heavily in that area for the maximum number they can do all at once before they move on to another area.”
He added: “If you have a family home that you can rent out for £700 and then you have a government contact that comes along for an HMO house and you can rent it out for £3,000 a month with no liabilities, no maintenance and no adherence to any rules or regulations, then the landlord is going to do that.
“This is the main concern around Horwich with migrants.
“That has the knock-on effect that there are fewer and fewer family homes to rent which drives the price up.
“It prices local people out of the area of where they want to live, and that drives people out whose families have been part of the community for generations.”
Andy Kelvin / KelvinmediaThe alleyways where rubbish often builds up behind the HMOs[/caption]
Tough new rules
A Home Office spokesman said the Government had inherited an asylum system “under unprecedented strain” and was “committed to close all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament“.
They added: “It is our longstanding policy not to comment on specific asylum accommodation sites, so we are unable to discuss the particular claims in this case.
“However, we will always seek to work closely alongside local authorities in relation to the community impacts of asylum accommodation in their area, including HMOs, as we continue working to reduce costs and restore order to the system over the period ahead.”
Bolton Council said it had brought in tough new rules to control the number of homes being converted into rental properties for multiple tenants with Article 4 in June.
Council deputy leader Akhtar Zaman said: “Uncontrolled HMOs have caused some concerns within local communities, and the new planning rules have the overwhelming support of council members.
“Multiple occupation households have their place in our society and are welcomed as controlled developments, provided they have planning approval which assess the suitability and potential impacts of the accommodation in the local areas.”
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