NOUVEAUX LOGEMENTS MIS A LA DISPOSITION DES ROMS LONDONIENS PAR LA MUNICIPALITE
EXCLUSIVE: How inconvenient!
Romanian migrants move into public loo and make it their home
FIFTEEN Romanian squatters who turned a public
toilet into their home have shown how mass migration is causing a
housing crisis, town hall chiefs said.
The gents was carpeted and fitted with a double bed, TV and home entertainment system [FERGUS SHEPPARD]
The gang had
carpeted it, put a double bed in the urinal space and tapped into the
electricity to run a fridge, cooker, microwave and home entertainment
system.
Last night council bosses said the
discovery in Edgware, north-west London, was more evidence of how
migration from eastern Europe was placing severe pressure on public
housing.
Harrow Council leader Susan Hall said:
“This was a public convenience but it was not meant to be quite that
convenient for the squatters who evidently turned it into a one-bedroom
flat.
“This shows the pressures of eastern European migration are rippling out into suburbia.
“People
may be desperate to resort to these measures, but this is a building
the council needs to sell to put money into services.
“The taxpayer is going to be left spending more than a penny to repair the damage done at this site.”
Since
border restrictions were lifted on January 1, thousands of Romanians
and Bulgarians are believed to have entered the UK in search of work.
The gang tapped into the electricity to run the cooker [FERGUS SHEPPARD]
The
Home Office has refused to confirm the exact number for the first month
and said that official figures will be released later in the year.
But
their arrival is already having an effect on communities, with hundreds
renting mattresses in outbuildings from rogue landlords – so-called
“beds-in-sheds” – for as little as £50 a week.
Those
living and working near the toilet – which had been closed for 10 years
– said they were unaware it was a makeshift shelter for more than a
fortnight.
The squatters were discovered by a
council officer who visited the block ahead of its auction on Thursday.
Once their cover was blown, the men left and abandoned their
possessions.
Inside, investigators found rolls
of industrial cable and receipts for copper wire sold for cash. No
passports were discovered but paperwork “suggested the men were from
Romania”, a council source said.
The squatters
had rigged up a TV aerial and washing lines in the gents. One cubicle
was used as a storage cupboard while the other was kept as a toilet.
A
makeshift shelf running the length of the men’s convenience was home to
a laptop, a DVD box set of Rich Man, Poor Man and a sewing machine.
The block, which is being auctioned with a guide price of £300,000, has now been boarded up and made secure.
Pharmacy
assistant Nilam Morjaria, 60, said: “It’s shocking to think they are so
desperate they want to live in toilets. It shouldn’t have been left
empty and boarded up so long. It should either have been torn down or
sold sooner.”
One resident, who did not want to
be named, said: “The toilet is not being used so it’s better than
druggies shooting up in there.
“There are so
many empty buildings in London that are just sitting there – houses rich
people have bought and are waiting for the prices to rise until they
can sell them.
“They have come here for a better
life but look what they have got – they’ve resorted to living in a
public toilet. They’re not squatting there because they want to.”
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