Residents hope council bosses reject plans for alleyway over fears of crime

A planning application for 10 homes in Cradley, Dudley will also see the walkway reopened if Dudley Council gives planners the nod.

Alan Morris, aged 52, who lives on Foredraft Street, where the homes are earmarked, says the walkway was closed 20 years ago over antisocial behaviour.

He said there are ongoing issues with anti-social-behaviour around a set of shops nearby on Windmill Hill, but opening up the walkway will move the problem "100 yards up the road".

Developers have also earmarked a small, communal garden to feature alongside the walkway.

Mr Morris, who has lived there for 15 years, will be speaking at the council's planning committee when the fate of the application will be decided on April 28.

He told the Express & Star: "The major issue is the reopening of a walkway - which was closed 20 years ago due to anti-social-behaviour - and a little garden to the rear of this site.

"Already, at the rear of the post offices, there is a car park area which is rife with drug taking, drug dealing, graffiti and all sorts of behaviour.

"This will move the problem 100 yards away with the reopening of the walkway and the little communal garden - which will have no upkeep or maintenance."

Mr Morris said the behavioural problems near Windmill Hill Post Office have been "going on for years".

He also recalled one incident in which a "youth" rode past his house on a bike, and his wife questioned where the youth lived, and then a large group turned up outside their house.

He said: "The next thing you know, 20 youths are outside our house, trying to goad us to confront them."

Mr Morris said complaints have been made to police but there has been no resolution in tackling the anti-social-behaviour.

Mr Morris he complained to West Midlands Police one occasion about anti-social-behaviour, and was told by an officer "you need to pick your battles".

In the past, he said council bosses have visited residents to talk about different issues, and drug-dealing happened in front of them.

With regards to the plans for opening the walkway, Mr Smith said "a lot of the community" is against the issue.

More than 50 people from 40 nearby properties who are worried about a raft of issues, including the loss of green space, an increase in crime and anti-social behaviour and traffic.

The proposal to build 10 houses and a bungalow on two parcels of land on Foredraft Street in Cradley.

Cradley and Wollescote ward councillor Gaye Partridge said: "The top of this piece of land, where they are going to be building these 10 houses, it kind of becomes abandoned after dark.

"Because there is nothing going on, it has become a magnet for relatively low level anti-social-behaviour.

"You could probably expect to witness some drug dealing, if you happened to go along there."

She added: "Within the area I represent, that is the reality that people try and not to bother the police, because they know the police cannot respond.

"People don't like to bother the police because they can't respond. It is the cuts, everybody knows there is not enough police going around."

Dudley Council's planning committee will decide on the plans on April 28.

West Midlands Police was approached for a comment.