‘Shanty-town’ estate set to be torn down with families out before Christmas

A ‘lawless’ estate made of £1,560-a-month shipping containers is set to be torn down, but families are worried they could be left homeless.

Marston Court estate in west London is made up of makeshift homes created from metal shipping containers, and has reportedly become a magnet for drug dealers and knife-wielding thugs.

Ealing Council officials sent letters ordering residents to leave their homes by December 12 or to take temporary accommodation offered to them.

The council will make a final decision on whether to decommission the homes on December 6.

Two families revealed they were offered ‘unsuitable’ accommodation fifteen miles away in Slough.

One mum told MailOnline she was moving from one nightmare scenario to another.

‘The council have told us they will make only one offer of putting us up in temporary accommodation somewhere else,’ she said.

‘The council have said if we don’t accept their offer they will no longer have a legal responsibility to provide housing for us and we will be on our own.

‘It couldn’t have happened at a worse time. We don’t know if we will have a roof over our heads this Christmas.’

The residents previously told MyLondon how their homes were infested with mould and rodents.

Resident Erin Martin said at the time: ‘When we moved in here, our shower didn’t have any hot water and neither did the kitchen sink.

‘It took them two years to come and fix it. Me and my kids were bathing using a bucket and a kettle for two years, just so they could come in 20 minutes and fix it, my sink still isn’t giving me hot water.

‘They don’t make it easy to know who to talk to, who to ring, who to speak to, there is no information.

‘Eight years, I have been waiting for Ealing Council to house me, for eight years. Everywhere I have been put is “temporary”. Eight years isn’t temporary.’

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