Vermin, overflowing bins and 'nasty things' blight car park

RESIDENTS SAY THEY DON'T FEEL SAFE AMID DRUG DEALERS AND ROUGH SLEEPERS

- By HARRISON GALLIVEN Local democracy reporter

A SMALL car park tucked behind West Croydon station has become a magnet for fly-tipping, rough sleeping, and open drug dealing, leaving residents and users saying they no longer feel safe.

Despite an intensive clean by Croydon Council's town centre task force last year, the site once again has deteriorated. Fly-tipped items, human waste, and vermin are now part of the daily scene.

Some residents describe it as “a dump’, while others warn of witnessing drug deals in broad daylight. The council-owned car park hosts 57 parking bays for commuters and visitors to the town centre.

However, many of those bays have been blocked by the overspill of rubbish and the presence of makeshift encampments for rough sleepers.

Zia Mahan, an Afghan national and Just Eat delivery cyclist, has been sleeping rough in the car park for the past two or three months.

“This country is cutting my visa, but I am a respectful person,” Mahan said.

Mahan arrived in the UK in 2018. He says he was badly injured in 2009 and has been disabled since then.

“I used to own a shoe business back in the day,” he added.

But his time in Croydon has been turbulent. “The police arrested me,” he claimed. “They tried to send me to the mental hospital. I am not mental.”