We live in a once-thriving seaside town where houses now sell for as little as £1…we’re terrified to leave our homes | The Sun

FAMILIES are living in fear in a former mining village where ex-cons have moved into empty homes and junkies roam the streets.

Locals living in Horden, a seaside town in County Durham, claim drug users leave used needles outside of their homes.

They have been left petrified by the violent criminals behind local stabbings and shootings.

Residents say the once safe and welcoming community is now an unsightly haven for trouble makers and law breakers, with many properties lying abandoned and others put on the market for just £1.

'I GREW UP HERE'

Sean Griffen, 47, has lived in the village his entire life.

The dad-of-two, who is currently unemployed, claims the area went to rack and ruin after the coal mines closed in 1987.

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He said: “There was a stabbing near here the other day and even a shooting at one point.

“I grew up here, it used to be a nice place to live but now it’s filled with drug users and crime.

“There was nothing like this and all the trouble here when I was a teenager.

“People are more bothered about their next high than finding a decent home or putting food on the table.

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“I spoke to an ambulance worker who said 95 per cent of the call outs here are for heroin or drugs.

“Everyone used to leave their doors open and unlocked but you would dare do that now.

“We saw two people trying to break into the house next to us the other day.

“It makes me worry for my children, when they’re older I’ll move out.”

His partner, Ashley Alderson, 31, who is also unemployed, added: “The empty homes here have fake doors and windows to stop the junkies from breaking in, if they’re high they think there’s someone living there.

“Homeless people live in the vacant houses, they just squat there.

“We’ve found needles near our home and we have to put them down the drain so the kids won’t get them.

“There’s also been Gabapentin tablets left on the ground.

“Even the children’s park where we take the kids is riddled with glass, beer and spit. It’s supposed to be a nice family place.”

MINING TOWN

The small town was once home to Horden Colliery, which set a record for the most coal mined in a single day, extracting 6,758 tonnes on May 9, 1930.

The Colliery, which was famed across Europe, was shut in February 1987, as the coal mining industry in the UK declined.

The once proud mining village, which is 24 miles south of Newcastle, has suffered a sad decline over the past few decades and is now littered with abandoned, boarded up houses.

The area has now become so undesirable that some homes are now for sale for as little as £5,000.

Another terrified resident added: “When I grew up here everyone knew each other. My dad was a miner and so was everyone else in the street.

“The miners have mainly died out now and landlords are buying up cheap homes and renting them out to former prisoners or whoever will take them.

“I even heard there’s an incentive where people are paid £1,000 to live here because no-one wants to come here.

“People openly take drugs in the street and crime has increased over the last 15 years or so.

“I had an incident where a man kept coming to my house and hanging around. I had to call the police, I don’t know if he was on drugs or mentally ill.”

Eleventh Street is made up of terraced homes and had the second highest number of drug offences in the region in 2018.

The ramshackle road has a number of abandoned homes that lay bare and appear to have no wallpaper or furniture.

THIEVES

One of the houses has drilled plastic sheets over the windows while other properties’ windows have been smashed.

Some properties have plastic covers with painted doors and windows on them, in a desperate bid to prevent criminals breaking into the empty abodes.

One local, who was too afraid to be named in fear of repercussion, said: “I’ve had prostitutes and thieves move in next to me.

“Apparently, Horden is advertised in Durham prison as somewhere ex cons can move to once they’re out.

“Landlords buy cheap properties and allow anyone to move in. They’re all from down south and never come to do repairs on the home so they decay easily.

"Next door’s window has been smashed for two months and nothing has been done.

“The homes have gone for as low as £1 because no-one wants to live here anymore.

“It used to be a community but everyone has moved away and strangers and drug users have moved in.

“My children are grown up now and are desperate to get out. When they were young we had no bother but now you keep your head down.”

Another local, who didn’t want to be named, said: “You wouldn’t let your kids wonder around by themselves. It’s too dangerous.

“Even my mam won’t let me out by myself and I’m 30.

“You don’t walk around at night alone.

“My brother saw two girls with needles in their arms sitting in the bus stop. Drug use is rife around here.

“One of my friends had a drug user break into his home with a knife and the police just let him go because he was mentally unwell, they took him to a hospital but there was no further action.”

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