Hi,
We've had a bad experience so far after moving to St Leonards a couple of months ago. We moved into a very bad block of flats near Warrior Square on the seafront. It has a lovely view which unfortunately made us overlook the fact the building itself was a bit shabby inside. We found out quite quickly the reason we got this nice flat with a sea view so cheap is because the building is used by heroin addicts as a place to buy and inject drugs. There's at least one dealer living in the building and the heroin addicts use the communal areas to shoot up in, so we have to walk by people slumped on the landings with needles in their arms, they leave the needles and bloody tissues on the floor and they rifle through the post because we have one mailbox for the whole building, slamming doors all day and night, someone got beaten up in the lobby the other day, it's just a nightmare.
Our landlord has sympathised with us and is letting us out of the contract. After this we feel like just giving up on trying to live in this town but on top of this happening my wife was diagnosed with cancer a couple of months ago and is a patient at Conquest Hospital so we don't want to have to move hospitals as well as moving house. I need to be fairly close to either St Leonards or Hastings train stations for work. What parts of Hastings/St Leonards are OK to live in? So far it seems like Warrior Square is bad, and some of the areas around the town centre in Hastings like Wellington Square or Cornwallis Gardens seem to be bad for heroin users as well. It seems like we could probably afford to live in West Hill - is that a safe area? We are going to try and get a house because at least then we won't have to worry about the communal areas being overrun and sharing a postbox again. I'm sure it's not this bad in most places but with my wife's health at stake we can't take any risks.
Hastings Forum
Looking for advice on what parts of Hastings/St Leonards are safe
Re: Looking for advice on what parts of Hastings/St Leonards are safe
Hi bernard,
I think you were very unlucky and if the landlord is the same one for the drug-dealer 'suspect' then he jolly well should be sympathetic.
Whoever the landlord is then either they are allowing the 'dealer' to remain in the property until enough Police complaints can be brought against him/her for it to be taken before a magistrate, or they have taken no action themselves.
I would contact the Community Police as ordinary Police don't always have resources to observe the situation, but they would certainly listen to a Community Police Officer, who could give you more information.
Also the Council (who license the landlord) and your local Councillor should be involved.
Neighbourhood Watch schemes are another avenue worth exploring.
But you say you are going anyway, and that's probably a good idea!
I think you need to talk to local residents in an area you like the look of and ask locally if any complaints have ben made about drug-dealing in that are.
Others on here may have better ideas, as even good areas can have isolated pockets of drug-users who often have disruptive callers delivering their 'fix', at any time of day or night, and this itself can cause a nuisance.
Query your new landlord before buying and ask if any drug-related issues have been found on the premises/block of flats and your specific requirements.
It should be possible to see if anmy Police action has been brought against a property or landlord and I would expect that drug-use would be a contravention of the letting terms, between landlord and tenant.
Good Luck - there's plenty of good and safe property out there - although the usual caveats apply regarding condition of property and terms on service charges and how well the owner looks after the property.
I think you were very unlucky and if the landlord is the same one for the drug-dealer 'suspect' then he jolly well should be sympathetic.
Whoever the landlord is then either they are allowing the 'dealer' to remain in the property until enough Police complaints can be brought against him/her for it to be taken before a magistrate, or they have taken no action themselves.
I would contact the Community Police as ordinary Police don't always have resources to observe the situation, but they would certainly listen to a Community Police Officer, who could give you more information.
Also the Council (who license the landlord) and your local Councillor should be involved.
Neighbourhood Watch schemes are another avenue worth exploring.
But you say you are going anyway, and that's probably a good idea!
I think you need to talk to local residents in an area you like the look of and ask locally if any complaints have ben made about drug-dealing in that are.
Others on here may have better ideas, as even good areas can have isolated pockets of drug-users who often have disruptive callers delivering their 'fix', at any time of day or night, and this itself can cause a nuisance.
Query your new landlord before buying and ask if any drug-related issues have been found on the premises/block of flats and your specific requirements.
It should be possible to see if anmy Police action has been brought against a property or landlord and I would expect that drug-use would be a contravention of the letting terms, between landlord and tenant.
Good Luck - there's plenty of good and safe property out there - although the usual caveats apply regarding condition of property and terms on service charges and how well the owner looks after the property.
Re: Looking for advice on what parts of Hastings/St Leonards are safe
Thanks Richard.
The dealer's landlord is not the same as our landlord, different lettings agency as well. They have started eviction process against them, but that takes 3 months, and we don't want to wait that long. There's 30+ flats in the building so it's very hard to keep track of who is supposed to be in there, and in any case the police told me they can't even kick out junkies who don't live there because they aren't trespassing if they were let in by the dealer and if they've already shot up their smack they can't be done for possession of drugs, which I suppose is why the police get shirty with us if we ask them why they aren't doing anything, as far as they're concerned there's no crime they can arrest someone for. I've already contacted the council, the building management company, the fire dept (the police told me to try the fire dept, but the fire dept said the police were wrong to suggest it because they don't deal with residential properties) and our MP. I did get a response back from the MP saying she'd written to the council about it. The others all passed the buck, e.g. the management company say it's a police matter, the police say it's a management company matter. I even called Citizens Advice Bureau but they just told me it was my fault for moving there, not very useful advice in my opinion. So there's no real solution but to move out.
I'm finding it a bit confusing trying to work out where is OK. Seems like everyone I ask says a different area of Hastings is bad, so by now I think every area has been described as dodgy by somebody. For instance earlier was asking someone local about West Hill because there's quite a few properties to rent round there at the moment, and they said it was as bad there as round Warrior Square, but Silverhill is OK. The other day somebody told me not to move to Silverhill because it's really dodgy there!
The dealer's landlord is not the same as our landlord, different lettings agency as well. They have started eviction process against them, but that takes 3 months, and we don't want to wait that long. There's 30+ flats in the building so it's very hard to keep track of who is supposed to be in there, and in any case the police told me they can't even kick out junkies who don't live there because they aren't trespassing if they were let in by the dealer and if they've already shot up their smack they can't be done for possession of drugs, which I suppose is why the police get shirty with us if we ask them why they aren't doing anything, as far as they're concerned there's no crime they can arrest someone for. I've already contacted the council, the building management company, the fire dept (the police told me to try the fire dept, but the fire dept said the police were wrong to suggest it because they don't deal with residential properties) and our MP. I did get a response back from the MP saying she'd written to the council about it. The others all passed the buck, e.g. the management company say it's a police matter, the police say it's a management company matter. I even called Citizens Advice Bureau but they just told me it was my fault for moving there, not very useful advice in my opinion. So there's no real solution but to move out.
I'm finding it a bit confusing trying to work out where is OK. Seems like everyone I ask says a different area of Hastings is bad, so by now I think every area has been described as dodgy by somebody. For instance earlier was asking someone local about West Hill because there's quite a few properties to rent round there at the moment, and they said it was as bad there as round Warrior Square, but Silverhill is OK. The other day somebody told me not to move to Silverhill because it's really dodgy there!
Re: Looking for advice on what parts of Hastings/St Leonards are safe
bernard, I'm sorry you've had such bad luck!
I can see the dealers etcetera operate in a 'grey area' because they know the Police have problems in bringing cases to Court.
The Police realise what will stand up in Court and need the hard evidence that a Magistrate will, or can, act upon and this is hard to provide, or it takes too long also the Police will typically be ridiculed, if the evidence is not watertight.
A 'Crown Court' involves a Jury and if the Police don't support the case then it will have to be pursued as a costly private prosecution, by the person/body making the allegations.
However, as you imply, 'possession' alone should bring a mandatory sentence, if it were possible for the Police to catch a dealer or accomplice 'red-handed in the first place.
Because of the proof required of the Police, the time and expense involved and the poor results obtained, the rotten dealers/users easily get away to continue their misery.
I've always felt the CAB seem next to useless and wish there was more i could do to help you.
Don't give up on finding a better place, perhaps avoiding Silverhill, Warrior Square, Cornwallis and West Hill, where the rent is low and the landlord/managing agent is seen as a 'soft touch', open to people regardless of their background, some won't accept people on benefits, but that hardly solves the problem really!
I can see the dealers etcetera operate in a 'grey area' because they know the Police have problems in bringing cases to Court.
The Police realise what will stand up in Court and need the hard evidence that a Magistrate will, or can, act upon and this is hard to provide, or it takes too long also the Police will typically be ridiculed, if the evidence is not watertight.
A 'Crown Court' involves a Jury and if the Police don't support the case then it will have to be pursued as a costly private prosecution, by the person/body making the allegations.
However, as you imply, 'possession' alone should bring a mandatory sentence, if it were possible for the Police to catch a dealer or accomplice 'red-handed in the first place.
Because of the proof required of the Police, the time and expense involved and the poor results obtained, the rotten dealers/users easily get away to continue their misery.
I've always felt the CAB seem next to useless and wish there was more i could do to help you.
Don't give up on finding a better place, perhaps avoiding Silverhill, Warrior Square, Cornwallis and West Hill, where the rent is low and the landlord/managing agent is seen as a 'soft touch', open to people regardless of their background, some won't accept people on benefits, but that hardly solves the problem really!
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