{"id":367698,"date":"2025-08-23T16:59:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T16:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/367698\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T16:59:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T16:59:22","slug":"i-cant-enjoy-my-own-garden-im-sick-of-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/367698\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I can’t enjoy my own garden, I’m sick of this’"},"content":{"rendered":"

“We feel completely let down”<\/p>\n

15:30, 23 Aug 2025Updated 15:35, 23 Aug 2025<\/p>\n

\"TheThe garden is shared by several properties (Image: Jason Roberts \/ Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

A woman in Stockport says she can\u2019t enjoy a communal garden outside her home because it\u2019s infested with fleas – and claimed the problem has not been fixed despite reporting it to the council.<\/p>\n

Emma Laycock, 34, lives in a flat on Betley Road in Reddish<\/a> with her eight-year-old dog Buster.<\/p>\n

The flat and garden are managed by Stockport<\/a> Homes – a social housing provider owned by Stockport council<\/a> – but Emma said every time Buster goes out in the garden he ends up full of fleas.<\/p>\n

To see planning applications; traffic and road diversions and layout changes; and more, visit the Public Notices Portal HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"EmmaEmma says she has to clean fleas from Buster several times a day.<\/p>\n

She also said she’s been bitten herself from the tiny insects.<\/p>\n

The garden is shared with other houses on the road, and Emma says other residents with pets are also suffering from the problem.<\/p>\n

“When Buster goes out he\u2019ll be covered in fleas. I have reported it to the council and they\u2019re saying it\u2019s too big a space [to do anything], but as a resident that\u2019s not my issue, they need to do the right thing by people who are living here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so sick of this, four or five times a day I have to get his fleas out. There are other animals who are having skin issues on the back of this. We feel completely let down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even go in my own garden, I\u2019ve been bitten like you would not believe, so I\u2019m stuck in a one-bed flat all day. I\u2019ve not spent a minute out here in all the nice weather<\/a> we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emma said she moved to the property five years ago, and that it\u2019s also hitting her in the pocket, having to fork out \u00a326 a month on flea treatments, but she says that this is her duty of care as a pet owner.<\/p>\n

\"EmmaEmma says the issue is still ongoing despite her reporting it to the council (Image: Jason Roberts \/ Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Join our Stockport WhatsApp group HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pictures reveal the scale of the problem Emma is facing, showing dozens of fleas removed from Buster when he goes into the garden.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cBuster is my support animal, he goes everywhere with me. I feel bad that we have to do this to him all the time. It decreases his quality of life and mine.”<\/p>\n

In response, Stockport Homes said: “We completely understand how upsetting this has been for Emma. Whenever issues like this are raised, we act straight away – consulting pest control experts, arranging treatments where needed, and ensuring our maintenance teams stay on top of the area.<\/p>\n

“In this case, we\u2019ve also covered the cost of treatment inside both Emma\u2019s home and her neighbour\u2019s, and our team is scheduled to return to monitor if fleas are still present.<\/p>\n

“Tackling fleas in outdoor spaces can unfortunately be an ongoing challenge, but we\u2019ll continue to monitor and support any residents who may be affected.”<\/p>\n

Stockport Homes said it has been in regular contact with Ms Laycock about the issue, and will continue to work closely with her, including arranging a tenancy visit to address any other concerns and provide additional support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“We feel completely let down” 15:30, 23 Aug 2025Updated 15:35, 23 Aug 2025 The garden is shared by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,9031,1288,2622,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-367698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-reddish","13":"tag-stockport","14":"tag-stockport-council","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115079149379123754","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367698","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=367698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}