PENSIONERS will ‘fight back’ after feeling afraid in their homes for ‘far too long’.

Elderly residents at Jubilee Court say they are ‘frightened’ to leave their homes due to criminal activity on a regular basis.

One resident, who did not wish to be named, said: “A lot of residents are feeling unsafe because of so many dangerous comings and goings. You see drug dealings going on.

“This has been going on for over four years. It’s getting out of hand, it’s not right.

“We are frightened. When you come to places like sheltered accommodation you should feel safe, but we don’t.

“There’s people here who are 90, 92 years of age and a lot of them are bad on their feet, they hate it here.

“Some have been here since the site opened in 1989 and they have never known it to be so bad.”

On Friday, February 7, residents said North Wales Police conducted three early morning raids on three different properties, which is not unusual for the area.

The elderly resident added: “We don’t have an issue with genuinely vulnerable people, but we can’t put up with criminal behaviour. Us pensioners are fighting back; we’ve just about had enough of it.

“We have all fenced off our gardens because it makes us feel that little bit safer.

“There is a fear of not wanting to leave our homes and it shouldn’t be like that. Our families are frightened for us, but we are going to fight back.

“We will have a meeting to see what we can do. It’s very sad what’s gone on here, it was lovely once upon a time. We should be able to go out in our garden and relax but we can’t. We want it to stop.”

Another resident told the Leader: “It’s awful living here with a constant fear. There are elderly people here who cannot afford to feel this scared for this long, when will it end?”

Residents have organised a meeting with local MP Mark Tami to see what can be done to improve the safety of the area.

He said: “I am aware of the issues regarding anti-social behaviour from some residents on Jubilee Court. North Wales Police have taken some action in relation to this recently. Magistrates have issued a partial closure order on one of the properties.

“I have been working on this issue for some time and have written again to Flintshire County Council requesting a meeting with residents to discuss this issue.

“The problem stems from the site being used to house people with significant health conditions who would not otherwise meet the criteria for pensioner accommodation, who also have severe substance misuse problems.

“Whilst there is a need for accessible accommodation in Flintshire each case should be assessed on its own merits. It’s clear that some of the tenants rehoused by Flintshire Council in Jubilee Court have led to other residents feeling threatened and unable to leave their homes.

“This is not acceptable, and the onus is on the council to make sure that residents keep to the conditions of their tenancies and do not commit anti-social behaviour or intimidate neighbours. If they continue to do this, then Jubilee Court is clearly not the right place for them to be housed and they should be removed.”

Jack Sargeant AM said he shares these concerns and will be contacting Flintshire Council officials for a meeting with those concerns as ‘everyone should feel safe in their homes, and action needs to be taken to ensure residents of Jubilee Court do’.

Flintshire County Council’s Chief Officer for Housing and Assets, Neal Cockerton, said: “We are aware of recent complaints regarding anti-social behaviour at Jubilee Court in Buckley and are working with North Wales Police to address the issues.

“We will be taking appropriate and proportionate measures to deal with any tenancy issues relating to anti-social behaviour and take such matters extremely seriously. We will be deploying localised CCTV in the area to support our current work.”