Towns and villages across County Durham are increasingly being used to house refugees (Image: Getty)
Frustrated residents have claimed their village has become a “hellhole” as they accused London councils of turning their home into a “dumping ground”.
In the former mining village of Eldon Lane, County Durham, locals describe their once-thriving community as a “ghost town,” with streets lined by vandalised, boarded-up homes.
Local residents accused local authorities in London of “dumping” Londoners and refugees in the area.
He told the Daily Mail: “They’re nice friendly people who look after their houses and they don’t take drugs and smash the place up, so good luck to them. They look after their houses and a lot of them work to pay their way.
“Eldon Lane has long been forgotten and left behind, we’re used to it but the place has become an absolute hellhole.”
Cheap housing in disadvantaged towns are cities are prime locations for councils to place migrants (Image: Getty)
Another said: “They started placing refugees and Londoners here all of a sudden, maybe two years ago they started to arrive, it became a dumping ground.”
This situation reflects a broader trend across County Durham, where towns and villages are seeing an increasing number of refugees reportedly being relocated from southern councils.
With housing prices in these deprived areas often as low as £5,000, they have become attractive to councils looking for cheap accommodation options through private landlords.
Eldon Lane is a prime example of a village struggling with significant social issues – 39 percent of its households are living in deprivation.
While locals have welcomed the refugees, they point out that the village itself has been starved of essential services for years. The village’s GP practice closed down two years ago, and the nearest A&E is a 22-mile round trip to Darlington.
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One person said Eldon Lane “became a dumping ground” (Image: Getty)
Eldon Lane lacks basic amenities like a dentist, pharmacy, school, or bank, and the last pub shut its doors years ago.
Several sources in the area have confirmed that a large number of refugees are also being sent to County Durham, exacerbating an already challenging housing situation in the North East.
The region is already grappling with housing issues, with 75,000 families on social housing waiting lists and over 300 children homeless in County Durham alone.
According to an investigation by the Northern Echo, London borough councils moved two vulnerable households per month into privately-owned homes in the region last year due to a severe shortage of social housing in the capital.