LIVERPOOL: The street of fear where the yobs are a nightmare 24 hrs a day

The street of fear where the yobs are a nightmare 24 hrs a day



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YOBS on a 24-hour wrecking spree crashed a car into a house before returning to set the building alight.

Welcome to life on Rosalind Way, just round the corner from Kirkdale station.

Vandalism, arson, graffiti and anti-social behaviour are a way of life in this “forgotten” part of Liverpool according to decent families fed up with bad behaviour from a small minority.

This week’s events are the latest in a catalogue of attacks from yobs, some only seven years old, intent on terrorising residents through starting fires, speeding around in stolen cars and hanging around in gangs.

Families living in the streets nearby say they live in fear from missile-throwing gangs who dump litter and syringes in their gardens.

Fire crews from Kirkdale are regularly called out to deal with incidents on Rosalind Way and neighbouring streets.

A station spokesman said they often responded to 999 calls after stolen cars and furniture have been set alight on wasteland, and there is a problem with yobs breaking into empty properties to start fires.

Hours after the ECHO’s photographs were taken yesterday evening, fire crews were back to tackle another deliberate fire at one of the derelict homes.

Local youths had even warned residents about the arson attack before they took part in a residents’ committee meeting about the problems.

Ann Devine, who lives nearby, said: “I have had enough of it, the groups of lads hanging around, cars speeding up and down roads and vandalism. It is such a shame because there are lots of good people living around here.

“I don’t like my kids to play outside in case they get caught up in it. I would like to move but all my friends and family live close by and I don’t see why I should be driven out by these people.”

One resident, who was too afraid of reprisals to be named, said: “It is disgusting around here and people have been complaining for ages.

“If I see the kids going into empty houses near my house I chase them off but they come straight back.

“The fire brigade are out here all the time and we have been having problems for years. I would like to see them build new houses where those derelict houses on Rosalind Way are now.

“Our local police community support officers have been a great help but they can’t solve the problem on their own.

“Everyone who lives here has become a victim of this situation.”

Labour councillor Malcolm Kennedy said: “When it’s bad around here, it’s bad. This whole area is forgotten. People don’t realise we are in Liverpool and assume it’s Bootle and we are in Sefton.

“I have raised the issue of the problems around here again and again. The people on Rosalind Way and around have had so much to put up with. The derelict properties in the street have always attracted trouble to the area.”