Tenant evicted after making neighbours’ lives a misery
Published: Thursday, 13 April, 2023
Stroud District Council has succeeded in evicting a tenant who made his neighbours’ lives a misery.
Mark Peto used a council home garden as a scrap yard and stored offensive weapons in the home in Woodview Road, Cam.
He was evicted on 22 March 2023 following a hearing a Gloucester County Court on 9 February 2023 where Stroud District Council was granted a Possession Order for the property.
For several years he used his property and garden as a scrap yard, storing flammable materials outside the property. In February 2022 Gloucester County Court granted a civil injunction order requiring Mr Peto to remove items from the property and garden. A power of arrest was later added to the order in May 2022 and offensive weapons including axes were found at the property and removed by police.
He refused to clear the outside of the home, so SDC removed more than four tonnes of scrap metal from the rear garden. Council Officers worked with both the police and fire officers to try and resolve this matter. After careful consideration the council made an application for possession.
Neighbours have had to live with the risk of flammable materials being stored against their property as well as being unable to sell their homes due to the eyesore. When approached by council officers Mr Peto was aggressive and was sent to prison in June 2022 after breaching his injunction order by assaulting a council officer.
Cllr Mattie Ross, Chair of Stroud District Council Housing Committee, said:
“Over a prolonged period, Mark Peto inflicted misery on his neighbours with no thought or concern of his actions on others. Whilst we always use eviction as a last resort, the council had no option in this case but to apply to the courts for a warrant.
“This issue was finally resolved for the good of the community thanks to the hard work of all the agencies involved, for which I am very grateful.”
Stroud District Council is the only Gloucestershire local authority to own and manage its own stock of council housing for rent. SDC has approximately 5,000 homes and almost 4,000 households are on the waiting list for a council home.
Cllr Lucas Schoemaker, Vice Chair added:
“We are committed to providing homes for our communities – we would like to thank the residents who came forward and gave evidence in this case and for the hard work and perseverance by council staff in what was a difficult and complex case.”