![\"Jess](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_TCBR060825WesleyBRI_05jpeg.jpg\")
Jess and Wesley Rumble-Bear lobbying the Filton head offices of Sovereign SNG housing association in Filton, asking for help with a maggot infection at their flat in Emersons Green, Bristol(Image: Acorn Bristol)<\/p>\nTheir landlord says it has found no evidence of an infestation despite their long-running complaints to the contraryJess and Wesley Rumble-Bear lobbying the Filton head offices of Sovereign SNG housing association in Filton, asking for help with a maggot infection at their flat in Emersons Green, Bristol(Image: Acorn Bristol)<\/p>\n
A pregnant mum fears for the health of her young children because of a maggot and fly infestation beneath the floor of their flat. Jess Rumble-Bear said the housing association responsible for the property is refusing to take action, despite a pest controller recommending urgent intervention.<\/p>\n
The housing association Sovereign (SNG) hit back, claiming they found no evidence of any maggot infestation when they visited, and said that the behaviour of Jess\u2019 partner Wesley – who is the chair of the Bristol branch of tenants union ACORN – was \u2018unacceptable\u2019.<\/p>\n
The row over what needs to be done in the flat in Emersons Green escalated this week, after the family and other ACORN members went to the offices of Sovereign in Filton<\/a> to make their case. They say they found staff had been told to work from home that day to avoid the protest.<\/p>\n The family say they made their first complaint about rubbish being left outside, leading to maggots crawling into brick vents, back in 2017. They then reported that maggots were coming out of the skirting board of the one-bed flat back in 2020.<\/p>\n Over the next five years, they said they regularly reported an issue with flies and maggots, but claim no one from the housing association SNG came to investigate. Jess, who is pregnant, lives in the flat with her partner Wesley Bear, their eight-month old baby, and Jess\u2019s teenage daughter.<\/p>\n Finally, at the end of July, the family reported flies were coming out of the kitchen cupboards and a pest controller visited, saying the floorboards needed to be taken up to allow investigation to find the source.<\/p>\n A week later, staff from SNG went to the property, but an argument developed which has now seen SNG contact the police, with what happened inside the flat disputed.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Controversial Imperial Apartments is damaging children, say health chiefs<\/a>READ MORE: We The Curious bans protesters who shut them down – ‘they crossed a line’<\/a><\/p>\n This week, Jess, Wesley, and supporters from ACORN went to SNG\u2019s Filton office to lobby for something to be done. \u201cMy baby is crawling through filth,\u201d claimed Jess. \u201cI don\u2019t feel safe. I don\u2019t feel heard. I\u2019m scared every day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy husband has been reporting the flies since 2020 – he\u2019s never believed. It\u2019s hard to watch him try so hard for us and be bashed constantly,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for ACORN said the couple felt ignored by SNG and that the “stench of maggots fills rooms of the flat”, adding: “The threat of sepsis carried by maggots is a constant terror for their family.”<\/p>\n Wesley Bear said his family felt trapped. \u201cWe\u2019re crammed into one room, breathing this in. I don\u2019t know how much more we can take,\u201d he said. \u201cIt feels like bullying. I\u2019m sick of being stonewalled. They\u2019re gaslighting us.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve been reporting flies and maggots since 2017 and they\u2019ve never listened. They even fined me for fly-tipping when I chucked the maggot-infested carpet out, after maggots crawled out of the wall onto the carpet,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Things came to a head when two members of SNG finally did visit on July 31. A spokesperson for the housing association alleged one was assaulted.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are aware that one of our customers has reported the presence of maggots and flies in the property he shares with his family,\u201d an SNG spokesperson said. \u201cOur staff attended the property on Thursday, July 31 and found no evidence of the infestation, despite a thorough inspection.<\/p>\n READ MORE: We The Curious forced to close after 80 protesters took over attraction and offered free entry to everyone<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol City Council apologises but no action for traumatised Barton House tower block residents<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhen a member of SNG staff reported the results of the investigation to our customer, he physically assaulted one of our colleagues. This is wholly unacceptable behaviour, which we will not tolerate. This has been reported to the police,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a responsible landlord, we want to work with our customers to ensure that their homes are comfortable to live in and that any issues are quickly resolved. We cannot accept behaviour towards our colleagues like that displayed by the customer last week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n That version of events is disputed by ACORN, who had members present during that visit to act as witnesses. One of them, Owen, said Wesley had simply sat down by the front door to block the exit \u2018in desperation\u2019 when it became clear the SNG staff were not going to lift up the floor to investigate their claims of the infestation.<\/p>\n \u201cSovereign’s claims are completely baseless,\u201d Owen said. \u201cOur member had sat in front of the door in desperation pleading with Sovereign employees to stay and witness the fly infestation for themselves after they attempted to leave the property without completing vital work that was promised,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Wesley said he was getting desperate for SNG to bring in a proper investigation team. \u201cHow many other people are going through this, or been through this, without any resolution?\u201d he said. \u201cWhat are we waiting for? Because from where I\u2019m sitting on the mattress on our maggot-ridden floor, in a flat filled with six people sometimes and zero space, it feels like we\u2019ve just been left behind,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Their landlord says it has found no evidence of an infestation despite their long-running complaints to the contraryJess…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,64694,393,10300,4884,6334,10299,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-326716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-emersons-green","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-filton","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-housing-crisis","15":"tag-south-gloucestershire","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114990718946147731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jess](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_TCBR060825WesleyBRI_04jpeg.jpg\")
Jess and Wesley Rumble-Bear lobbying the Filton head offices of Sovereign SNG housing association in Filton, asking for help with a maggot infection at their flat in Emersons Green, Bristol(Image: Acorn Bristol)<\/p>\n![\"Jess](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_TCBR060825WesleyBRI_02jpeg.jpg\")
Jess and Wesley Rumble-Bear lobbying the Filton head offices of Sovereign SNG housing association in Filton, asking for help with a maggot infection at their flat in Emersons Green, Bristol(Image: Acorn Bristol)<\/p>\n