NEIGHBOURS say people have been smoking drugs and urinating in their communal garden because housing bosses failed to replace a gate which might have kept them out.

The brick wall which held the gate in Cranham Drive, Warndon, Worcester blew down in high winds nearly six months ago on Monday, February 1.

However, while the wall has since been replaced with a stronger one, the gate has yet to be installed, which housing provider Fortis Living has blamed on 'operational issues' involving a contractor.

Now fed-up tenants in the flats say the absence of the gate means people can gain entry to the communal garden, although Fortis has said the work will be completed 'imminently'.

They say there have even been cases of people urinating in their garden and smoking cannabis in the stairwell of the flats, managed by Fortis Living.

Simon Cox, one of the residents in the block of 14 flats, said the wall has been repaired three months after it had blown down but that the gate had yet to be replaced despite him having contacted Fortis ‘a hundred times’.

He said: “I have been badgering them about getting the gate put back up but another three-and-a-half months later and we’re still waiting. I have been ringing them every week and they keep saying ‘we will get it done, we will get it done’.

“In the meantime we have kids coming in and messing up the garden and peeing in the garden, smoking drugs in the stairwell. I have had to chuck them out on numerous occasions. I call the police and they don’t come out.

“I think it’s absolutely disgraceful. Between us all 14 flats pay £14,000 a year in ground maintenance payments yet nothing gets done.

“It’s like they don’t want to spend any money.”

The door was pin code operated before the wall blew down but Mr Cox said non-residents quickly learned the code.

Mr Cox said a door entry card system was preferable but has been told this is unlikely to happen.

Marc Mayall, general manager of Fortis Property Care said: “Our apologies to the tenants involved. The replacement gate has been ordered and was scheduled to be fitted by our contractor some weeks ago.

"Unfortunately they have experienced some operational issues that led to the work being delayed. The work is now scheduled to be completed imminently.”