Comment | Read Comments (1)

When blood-sucking bugs attacked her five-year-old son as he slept in his bed, young mother Kelly Johnson decided to end their nightmare and abandoned her council home.

It was the final straw in a catalogue of complaints from Miss Johnson, 26, who lives in a Richmond Churches Housing Trust property in Cricketers Close, Chessington.

She has had to flush her toilet with a bucket since Christmas and since she moved into the two-bedroom house in July 2004 her living room ceiling has collapsed three times due in part to a leaking bath.

On March 11, rare pigeon bugs - which normally live on birds - crept down from birds in the loft and took up residence in her asthmatic son's bed, leaving him covered in hive-like bites. When she found the bugs, she packed her bags and went to her mother Katherine Williams' house in New Malden.

Miss Johnson, who is on income support, has been calling Richmond Churches Housing Trust regularly to no avail. She had the house fumigated from her own money three weeks ago at a cost of £200 but the bugs reappeared. She has been told they are connected to birds in her loft, and it might take up to six treatments to evict them.

She said: "They have taken over and it is just horrendous - it is just the final straw. It is my home and I don't want to move, I've had a new floor put down and my son is settled there. But I can't live there until they are gone."

The housing trust told Miss Johnson that the birds in her loft were starlings, a protected species, therefore they could not be removed without a licence.

But last Wednesday, after she told the trust that she had contacted the Surrey Comet, sister paper of Local London, a workman came round and removed the nests.

Yet the bugs remain. Miss Johnson said the pest controller told her the ant-size pigeon bug adapts to the life of a common bed bug when necessary, and when it bites it takes 10 times more blood than a mosquito.

She believes they have come through the vent in her son's room from the loft, above his head.

"He was screaming and had these big red bites," she said.

When Miss Johnson moved into the flat in July 2004, she had heard a rustling in the loft but the housing trust told her it must be squirrels.

Last month Miss Johnson had a visit from a workman from Inspace, the housing trust's maintenance company, about her broken toilet flush and leaking bath. He used a hairpin to try to repair the toilet, she said, but it is still not working.

Ian Watts, managing director of Richmond upon Thames Churches Housing Trust, said the trust was only told on April 2 that the bugs were not bed bugs - which are the tenant's responsibility - and were to do with to birds in the roof.

On April 3 and 4 workers removed the birds, and will make a permanent repair to their entry point "in due course".

He said: "We understand Miss Johnson is taking advice from the Environmental Health Department on this matter and we await their comments.

"The trust will then act on areas which are its responsibility."

He said the toilet was properly repaired last month and apologised for the length of time it had taken.

6:39am Thursday 12th April 2007

Print

Email this

Comment

Add your comment

Name:
Email: *
Location:
**
	e.g. 123-123
Comment: Please note: All HTML tags will be ignored. Format Text:
By posting a comment, I confirm that I have read and agree to the terms of use. Comments are not moderated but we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention and we may delete inappropriate postings. Please treat other people with respect. You must not post anything that is abusive, indecent, unlawful or defamatory. Remember, you are personally liable for what you post on this site. If you wish to complain about a comment, contact us here.
* Your email address will not be displayed ** To avoid register now or login