People living in a derelict housing estate which has become the focus of a viral TikTok video have spoken about the realities of life in its streets.
The footage of Primrose Court in Huyton, Merseyside has racked up more than five million views.
A voiceover on the video, which was created by a TikTok user scrolling on Google Street View, says: "Look at the f****** state of this street in Liverpool."
It shows derelict homes with their windows boarded back in September 2019, while music from the horror film Dead Silence plays over the top of it.
Residents living in the area told the Liverpool Echo they feared for their safety due to gangs torching houses and setting fires in the street.
The issue of crime coupled with fly-tippers targeting the area has caused many people to move out of the area.
One man, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, told the ECHO: "I feel unsafe. There's a gang - they don't want to see this area getting better.
"All the time people are bringing their rubbish and they make fires. I can't describe it to be honest with you, it looks like Beirut.
"I'm looking for a safe life, I'm not looking for trouble. Every day I'm going to work, I pay my bills.
"I remember one man moved in and he left after a couple of months because he wasn't safe here.
"They're nice houses but for some reason, these people don't want to see this area getting better."
The problems with Primrose Court appear to have started when the development was first built by two private companies who went bust before work on site was completed.
This means key elements such as street lighting and ‘proper kerbs’ have not been installed on the road.
And because the road is unadopted, the duty to maintain it belongs to the owners of the properties.
In a previous interview with the ECHO, one woman who did not want to be named said she lived in a house on Primrose Court for seven years until she couldn't take anymore.
She said: "It was nice when I first moved in. They were lovely houses. It went really bad around June 2018.
"One family moved in and the next minute they all turned up. That was when it all went downhill."
After the families moved out of the houses, which are privately owned, the woman said kids living in the area continued to vandalise them by smashing up windows.
Speaking to the ECHO earlier this month, the owner of A1 Properties, Colin Bell, said of the 400 houses he manages across the region the 10 properties he owns on Primrose Court "create 90% of our problems."
On average, Colin said he spends around one and a half to two days a week on the estate attending to issues and clearing up rubbish that has been left there.
Colin said: "All around Primrose Court there are nice properties going up and being sold immediately.
"The area is ripe for investment but we're stuck with Primrose Court simply because of the council really, I don't know how many times I've rung up asking what's happening or sent emails. They come back with the same thing 'they're hoping to get funding.'"
Of the 24 properties on Primrose Court, Colin said nine of the houses, which are owned by different landlords, are currently empty - and four of them are believed to have been derelict for over 14 years.
Colin claims that in October 2018, Knowsley Council promised street lighting would be installed and work on the road would be completed on the grounds that each property owner would pay towards the work.
He said: "It's a crazy situation. Over two years ago now we agreed for the council to do the work and we would repay the council.
"For any of the houses that we didn't repay, the council would repossess the houses and they would have charge of them. We were told the work would be completed in nine months - this was pre-covid. Up to now, we're still no further on."
However, Knowsley Council has disputed these claims and said the properties on Primrose Court are all privately owned and the council never agreed to repossess them.
A Knowsley Council spokesperson said: “Knowsley Council did not build the properties at Primrose Court and has never owned them. It is therefore not the case that we are able to 'repossess' them and we have never agreed to do so.
“In fact, many of the issues at Primrose Court arise because the development was built by two separate privately-owned companies – both of which went into liquidation without completing the work on-site and without meeting the planning conditions for the developments.
"This meant that the usual processes for adopting the highway, installing street lighting etc could not be followed and the same problem prevents the installation of other measures such as CCTV.
"The current property owners expect the Council to use a considerable amount of public money to complete a privately owned development.
“The Council has been in regular dialogue with the homeowners and landlords of properties in Primrose Court since the initial issues arose in the area."
The council continued: "A number of Council services, including Housing, Highways, Environmental Health, and Crime & Communities, have worked with homeowners and landlords to identify solutions to the issues on site, try to identify sources of funding, and agree a collaborative approach to tackling the issues that are evident.
“For example, the Council met with some of the owners to discuss co-funding highways and infrastructure improvements to bring the road up to adoptable standards.
"At that meeting, the owners who attended agreed - in principle - to co-fund this work. Unfortunately some of the other owners who did not attend refused to agree to contribute their shares, which would be required to progress the adoption of the road under a Private Streetworks Agreement.
"The Council has established how much the work would cost should an agreement ever be reached, but these costs are only going to continue to increase as time passes due to the poor original construction of the road by the developers.
“Unfortunately, the Council is not in a position itself to fund all of the work which is required on site. Indeed, this would not be appropriate given that the Council does not own any housing and is not able to re-possess privately-owned properties.
“Despite this challenge, the Council continues to look at solutions to tackle the issues being experienced and we are bidding for additional funding to carry out work in the area.
"Only last year, we pledged an extra £1 million of funds specifically to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour across the Borough – which is a key issue here.
“The standards at Primrose Court are not acceptable and we remain committed to working with the owners on collaborative solutions to resolve the issues for all concerned.”
