My street was the poshest in town but now it’s a complete dump – I went to prison TWICE for fighting the council over it
A RESIDENT in one of her town's poshest streets has said it's a complete dump - and she was sent to prison twice for fighting the council to clean it up.
Josephine Rooney, 86, has battled for years to drive drug addicts, drunks and sex workers from her once beautiful street in Derby.
She refused to pay her council tax in protest - and was sent to jail twice over it.
The pensioner, who refuses to give up, continues her mission despite her sadly admitting "things will never get better".
Josephine says that her and other locals have seen their one time desirable and upmarket leafy street turn into a “smack alley” full of undesirable neighbours and plagued by junkies.
Hartington Street - full of imposing three-storey Victorian terrace homes - is now on the road to ruin.
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Josephine has lived alone in her home, a 10-minute stroll from the city centre, for 37 years.
Today her only way of combating the crime and anti social behaviour, which “comes in waves” she admits is to “keep myself to myself and stay behind closed doors.”
Speaking exclusively to The Sun Online from the steps of her four-bedroom home, she said: “I have been to prison twice because I stood up for what I believed in.
"There were big problems in the street so I refused to pay my council tax.
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“Over the years things got a bit better before they got worse again. I have owned this house since 1986 and I have campaigned for change.
“Now I realise, with some sadness, things will never get better. It will never change back to how it was despite all the promises from the authorities.
“You just have to tune a blind eye to all the unsavoury goings on.”
Josephine, a retired London-based British Airways flight bookings supervisor, pointed, horrified, to the piles of junk and garbage stacked up in her next door neighbour’s front garden but confessed: “It’s been worse.”
She wishes: “We hope thing will be improved but it’s unlikely.”
The lone “very security conscious" OAP told how she lived on the first floor of her home and had her ground floor secured.
Josephine said current problems in the street were down to anti-social behaviour and fly tipping admitting: “I am angry because things are still not being done.
"People here are concerned that it’s not getting any better.”
She admitted: "Things will never change back despite all the promises from the local council.
"I thought about moving away and even back too my native Ireland but at the top of the street I have two supermarkets and I am an eight minute bus ride from the hospital, I have all amenities on my doorstep, so for an elderly person with some health issues this is fantastic."
Josephine told how she paid £40,000 for her home in 1986 and said she had “no idea of price today but I’d be lucky to get £200,000".
'ROUGH AND VIOLENT'
Electrician Ian, who is working on one of the flat conversions almost opposite Josephine’s pad, said: “This used to be the poshest street in Derby.
"The Royal Infirmary Hospital was housed down the road and all the houses along here were for doctors and nurses.
"But after the hospital closed and many of the professional people started selling up and moved away, and it it started going downhill.
"The big houses were turned into flats and problems came with drug use, prostitution, fly tippers and theft.
"These beautiful three-storey houses were turned into six flats a piece and in recent years have been rented out to social housing tenant and Eastern European migrants.
"The alleyways on the street have become ‘crack and smack alleys.’
"Efforts are being made to clean up the place but the problem is there is a continuing influx of new people living here, renting, and not always caring."
Tradesman Ian, who knows the street well but lives elsewhere, admitted: "It has its moment here. I’ve seen violence in the past and fighting."
Latvian Peter Pelniks has rented a flat in the street for nine years and admits it is "quite rough".
The warehouse worker, 42, who moved to Britain in 2007, said: "When I first moved here it looked like a lovely street, and then I saw rogue sleepers at the top of the road, and drinkers and I thought ‘Oh my God!'
"There was a lot of noise, people arguing and bad behaviour and then Covid restrictions made everyone stay indoors, so it got better. But then it got worse again."
Peter, who lives alone in an "affordable" first floor flat, said he was "blessed with having good neighbours".
He added: "We’re all getting used to it here, it goes through bad phases and much quieter ones and once you get to know people it seems better."
Just stay behind closed doors and you don’t know what goes on at 2am.
Anonymous resident
One of the handful of long term home owners, still living here, told The Sun Online: “It was a very posh street years ago but it has changed.“
The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “I’ve lived here for 14 years but there’s not many house owners there now.
“It’s a very transient street now, there’s drug addicts and crime but it comes and goes. We want it to be a quiet community but is has its moments.
"Just stay behind closed doors and you don’t know what goes on at 2am."
Resident Colin Doyle has lived in eight different flats in Hartington Street over the decades.
The retired bus shunter driver admitted: "The place needs cleaning up. It is a s*** hole!
"There’s problems with drug addicts and all sorts but you ignore it and if I didn’t like living here I wouldn’t be!
"The local paper is always slagging the street off, left right and centre.
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"At times it’s unfair because every street has its ups and downs."
The singleton, who lives alone, said he coped by "always keeping myself to myself".
