Using the Twitter handle of @helphanwell, a local resident has had to take to the social media platform to raise awareness of the issue of anti-social behaviour from drink and drug addicts who make life for her, and her young daughter along with others in the community a living nightmare.
@helphanwell reveals what it is like to be living in the area, which she has called home all her life, and how both Ealing Council and the police have failed to make the area safe for those who live there.
Same beer cans scattered across the pavement… sitting drinking under a public space protection order sign 👍 @EalingCustSer @EalingCouncil @MetCC @monhamidi @PKnewstub @ElthornePR pspo needs to be enforced pic.twitter.com/ug8TbVMS5R
— x (@helphanwell) May 28, 2023
“I have been a Hanwell resident all my life. As a child the Hanwell area was a lovely little community, it was always clean and tidy and a lovely place to live.
“When I moved out of my childhood home, and where my mum still resides, we noticed there were a lot of street drinkers and drug users coming into Hanwell around 2015, it was getting worse and worse as no crime prevention were taken to stop it before it got out of hand.
“I started to find drug users on my stairs, street drinkers using my outdoor stairs as a toilet (for urine and poo) which was not nice for me to have to clean up on a near daily basis.
@SuperKandohla this is happening right outside where I'm having to stay with my daughter 2 incidents in the space of 30 seconds mins from each other! One on our doorstep! pic.twitter.com/mNGyj1KTBg
— x (@helphanwell) June 17, 2018
“I had my gate fixed repeatedly as my landlord was awful and refused to help me. It was getting worse to the point it was every day 3 to 4 times a day between both the street drinkers and junkies.
“I was cleaning up dangerous used needles, burnt spoons, foils, wraps, broken lighters, home made bongs out of beer cans, urine, human faeces and so on.
More drug wraps on my stairs this morning that wasn't there last night 😑 pic.twitter.com/dJJdCPpSf4
— x (@helphanwell) May 31, 2018
“My daughter was coming home from school/leaving for school and coming face to face with 2 to 6 of them on our stairs every morning.
“I ended up going to to police and Ealing Council who barely helped me. I went to endless police meetings, council/safer community meetings to try and stop this as it was effecting both mine and my daughters mental health.
“It wasn’t just my property being targeted, the clock tower, benches, other peoples front gardens, any ally or place they would get down were taken over by these people doing drugs, selling drugs or drinking.
“I came home one day to find a street drinker had broken into my main door and was passed out on the floor in my hall way. A few days after I caught a junkie prostituting herself on my stairs with the stench of fish entering my living room (this is was told by the police is heroin) I chased her out to be violently verbally assaulted.
“I kept reporting to the police and council and got nowhere. 999 calls, no one turned up, when calling 101 I was told they have better crimes to deal with.
More drugs I've had to clean up TWICE off my stairs in the space of less than a week… @mps223 @milessouthhall @MPSElthorne pic.twitter.com/NHy2GMDVaw
— x (@helphanwell) May 21, 2018
“This junkie then ended up coming back every day to my property and attacking both me and my daughter and threatening my daughter to her face that she was going to stab her. She then went on to say she was going to put a brick through my window, and on another occasion got in my mother’s face and started threats towards her about killing her and stabbing her as my mum was with me when we caught her on my stairs on another occasion. She would not stop returning to my property.
“This happened numerous times with no help for me other than people of the Hanwell community after putting this on Hanwell Friends on Facebook I had so much support and help from local Hanwell residents.
“I made a Twitter page to post and tag all the authority’s that needed to be informed as I just didn’t know what else to do, I had back up of many residents also doing the same to help me and the community tackle these problems. It took a while but I finally started getting through to Ealing Council and the local police.
“I had contacted all Labour councillors for Elthorne Ward who were useless and did nothing along with local MP Virendra Sharma. I found he was rude, useless and made it clear he didn’t care in the slightest and refused to help me. Only after the help of former MP Steve Pound did Mr Sharma ever get in touch.
“The Liberal Democrats of Elthorne ward were incredible, Alastair Mitton was absolutely amazing! I couldn’t thank him enough for the help and support he gave to me and my daughter and the Hanwell community.
“I then got some help from safer communities around 2017 who were willing to take this particular junkie to court with my help and a few other Hanwell residents that also had problems with her. She was served with a injunction she wasn’t allowed to enter Hanwell or Southall (as she was also causing a nuisance there) she broke her injunction on a daily basis and even continued to come to my property, everytime I called the police she wasn’t dealt with even with an injunction in place.
“She was caught a few times stealing from local shops and did a few weeks in prison that also didn’t deter her. She is currently still seen in Hanwell every day in 2023 doing drugs, stealing people’s parcels from their door steps and verbally abusing residents that confront her.
“The problem in Hanwell with street drinkers and drug users got worse. Residents soon found out a St Mungos was on the Uxbridge Road where they were housing these people. Ealing Council were also housing known drug users/dealers on Boston Road. This has made the problem worse. Even having their own places to live they still go to people houses and property’s and use drugs instead of in their own homes away from children and residents to see and have to deal with or clean up behind.
“I ended up having to move with no help whatsoever from the police or council to keep me and my daughter safe. They disrespectfully housed a few of the local drug users that broke into my gate is a real insult.
“I finally moved in 2019 to another road that was quiet and off the main road where all the problems were. There were always the odd street drinker and the odd drug user but it had definitely died down and wasn’t nearly as bad.
“In 2022 the problems with street drinkers and junkies started to rise and now has hit an all time high.
“A few months ago I found 3 new faces smoking heroin on my stairs. This set off my anxiety all over again and I had to chase them off my property. I had enough by this point and started re-posting on my Twitter page to get help and let the authorities know how bad it has gotten and that something needs to be done about it.
“This is a daily occurrence again, it’s making Hanwell look dirty, and like a slum area to live in when in fact it is still a beautiful little community that needs some love and attention by the authorities.
“It makes me so mad to see our historic Hanwell clock tower being destroyed, littered on, sat on, slept on, vomited on and urinated on.
“Children are growing up having to see drugs being used in broad day light in the phone boxes, on their door steps, outside their schools, on their way to and from school, being stopped in the street and asked for money when they are children in school uniforms. It’s totally and utterly unfair.
“I’ve had other residents of Hanwell and surrounding areas such as West Ealing contact me and tell me they have noticed the increase in the problems. This is from the many new faces as well as all the old faces. Residents are coming home to find parcels stolen, human urine and faeces on their property or finding the addicts on or around their property as well as being asked for money or begging in the streets.
“Together we can get Hanwell back to how it was, unfortunately Hanwell is neglected by the authorities and the PSPO is not enforced as it should be on a daily basis.
“Ealing Council and the police need to do something and keep on doing it to ensure they win back the confidence and trust of residents who can feel safe and secure both in their homes and when walking in Hanwell.”
