'Mummy I don't like the smell'- The struggling families 'trapped' in homes plagued by damp and rats

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Frustrated families on one Rochdale street say damp is coming up through their floorboards and into the walls. Anthony Bleakley lives with his family-of-six in a housing association home on Cedar Avenue in Heywood. "We only put this wallpaper up six months ago, it just falls off," he said, gesturing towards a wall in the living room. READ MORE: Three arrested after dad, 37, 'abducted and murdered' released under investigation But it's the hole in the floor below it that's the most shocking. "We took up the laminate to show more evidence [of the damp]. "I was standing on it and it just fell through," he said.

The moment was caught on camera - and shown to the M.E.N. Underneath the floorboard, Anthony said that he could see a 'pool of water'. "A lot of the water has gone now but there still is some.

When it rains it fills up a lot," he said. Now, Anthony, who has lived in the house for three years, and his partner for six, covers up the hole with a playhouse. "I'm a groundworker by trade so I know what's gone on," Anthony said.

The rising damp in the houses on Cedar Avenue is down to a failure with the damp proof courses, according to Matthew Condrad, the director of Tenant Claim, who is representing Anthony's family.