A MUM of three young children, who is due to have another baby in four weeks, has spoken up of the nightmare of living with large rats that invade her home and have terrified her children.

She lives in the much-criticised Keir Hardie House tower block in Grays – which along with neighbouring blocks has been the subject of national media attention over their condition with damp and mould penetrating many of the residents' flats.

The blocks have been roundly condemned by local ward councillors Joy Redsell and Ben Maney – who have called for them to be razed to the ground and its residents rehoused in decent living conditions.

The latest horror story from the block comes from the young mum, who has turned to Nub News because she says Thurrock Council is doing nothing to counter the menace of rats – which she says brazenly enter her 'meticulous' home and are regularly see running around the outside of the building.

The mum of three children aged ten, five and four has asked us to keep her identity anonymous, though the council knows who she is and her complaints have been 'noted'.

She says: "As if we don't have enough to deal with in Keir Hardie House with mould and damp, this is currently what I am putting up with. Rats, not mice but RATS coming through the cladding and walls into my flat.

"I have phoned Thurrock Council who don't seem to care as they don't do pest control apparently. I could understand if I was in a house as I could call them out to have look for gaps etc but we are in a block and that's not possible.

"So I am currently battling this with having three young children living here and a baby due in four weeks.

"The germs on these vermin petrify me with a new baby about to come but no, the council says it cant do anything. Surely this is enough to make them realise how bad these flats really are?

"I don't think i have ever seen a pest control downstairs keeping on top of it, bearing in mind we have communal bins. It is terrible and me and my kids are petrified when we hear these rats scurrying about in the walls.

"Especially my five year old, who cries himself to sleep. I don't know where to turn. I'm so upset this is going on. I can assure you without being big-headed my flat is one of the cleanest in the block and makes me sick to my stomach that this is happening to me and my kids."

She says has resorted to setting her own traps under the kitchen units in her flat and has already killed one of the large rodents but others still regularly visit.

In October the council announced that in the wake of continued concern about the flats in Blackshots – and others in the borough, it would be launching a consultation to assess residents' concerns.

That was welcomed by Cllr Maney, but he is already a firm believer that there is only one solution.

He says: "I have never wavered in my view that the three high rise blocks in Blackshots are no longer fit for purpose and should be brought down.

"Conditions in many individual flats are appalling with mould and damp being rife. I have never in 20 years of being a Blackshots councillor found a single resident of the flats who likes living in them."

The state of Thurrock's high rise blocks has been featured heavily on Thurrock Nub News, including this report in December last year.

We called the blocks 'a shadow of shame' across the borough – but a year on it seems little in practical terms is being done to improve the tenants' day-to-day lives.

Indeed, even a scheme to replace old cladding across council blocks – first reported by Nub News in May 2020 - appears to have crawled to a halt.

Work started on some flats in south Grays but has taken an age and residents have complained about the quality of workmanship, the huge inconvenience to their lives and the rudeness of contractors. In May this year Nub News was on site to report after parts of the scaffolding fell from the building in high winds – causing damage to vehicles.

And we share the frustration of residents who say the council does not respond.