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‘Violence at your doorsteps, nightmare parking, yard sex and loud, fast cars’; just some of the claims from fed up Digbeth residents who say they are ‘disrupted until 3am every weekend’. And locals say they often can’t park on their own street, or get trapped by visitors ‘leaving their cars everywhere’.

When nearby clubs close their doors, they claim trouble is brewing. Visitors to the residential area will urinate in front of the homes of young families, while others will dump their used condoms and tissues in the gardens for disgruntled homeowners to discover the next morning, according to locals.

“If you walk through here on Friday or Saturday, it’s going to be absolute chaos,” warned one owner when asked about the problems. Takeaway boxes litter the streets and ravines, also said to be used by revelers looking to continue the party after leaving neighboring venues.

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Lawn chairs were found set up in the alley, littered with rubbish and complete with a huge crate of empty beer cans when BirminghamLive visited. Residents here spoke of a series of problems that recur on their street ‘every Friday and Saturday’.

“They’re just taking advantage,” said a mother of four, moving her two-year-old son out of earshot. “They come to urinate or park everywhere.

“They urinate in front of their property, in front of the garage. They play music or yell really loud. They laugh and fight with each other.”

An edge of grass and the pavement in front of their homes become clogged with cars on weekends, they claim, and residents are reportedly unable to self-park or “stuck” from leaving.

“They park the whole car on the sidewalks. They just say: ‘We can park anywhere’. There is a lot of garbage, every day we find that there is food, glasses and drinks, they have those gasoline bottles too.”

As 3am rolls around, locals can still hear the last of the revellers, “still stoned” from drugs consumed in cars. The mother adds: “Trying to put the children to sleep is very noisy. Sometimes we tell them ‘please be quiet’. They will move and come back again.”

“We don’t really tell them anything. Before, a neighbor told them not to make noise and they attacked her. She was 50 years old, they didn’t respect her, she got scared and moved away”.

Further down the row of houses, social worker MJ has the same complaints about the area he has lived in all his life. “Everything happens on Gooch Street,” claims the 56-year-old man, sitting on the sofa to go through a string of problems.

“It’s a real nightmare. It’s changed my life. I’m finding part of the time that I have to leave my car at work because when I get home, I realize there’s nowhere to park and if I find it somewhere to park, they’ll likely park behind me or in such a way that I can’t get out,” he adds.

“Some park on the actual sidewalk and I’ve seen people in wheelchairs and strollers have to go out on the street. I’m surprised they get away with the way they park, they know they can do whatever they want.”

“You hear them outside arguing, you can see them fighting. I’ll be in my room trying to sleep and listening to the loud music. I can see them getting high. They roll down the window and leave the paraphernalia outside the car.” he claims.

Amid blaring music, he says he’s gotten used to showing up to work tired. But, of course, he has contemplated moving. “But at my age, it’s just uprooting. Where can you go to ensure you won’t have a different set of problems?” he asks.

Often her neighbors across the street will find “condoms and handkerchiefs” in their “young men and girls” yards, she says. He fears that the newly made park, designed for children to use, is also being used for drugs and sex.

A taxi driver, in his 30s, says the problem is not as severe as “a couple of years ago” but says many locals have “bad experiences” living there, so he has installed CCTV on his property. As a precautionary measure. in the midst of antisocial behavior.

He claims a driver hit the back of his taxi a couple of weeks ago. “This area has been messed up now with drugs. There are a lot of fights. If you go there, there are a lot of people doing drugs…cannabis…everything,” he says.

Another resident recounted how drug use and violence was taking place right outside their doors. She said: “Every Friday and Saturday night cars are parked everywhere and it gets like the outside of a club when it’s time to go out around 10pm-2-3am in the morning sometimes later.

“We have cars racing up and down the street, people blasting music in the woods from their cars, food and trash thrown from cars, drug use and violence right outside our doors. The houses in the ones we live are very close, many have young children and families.

Has this affected you? Do you live in an area like this? We would like to know about you. You can contact us by sending an email to [email protected]

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