Woman slams Sheffield City Council for not cleaning fly-infested flat where dead man was found almost two weeks ago

Gail Wilson, 54, was at home in Madehurst Gardens on August 13 when police broke down the door of her neighbour’s flat.

Residents who lived above had raised concerns over not seeing the man who lived there for a week, and had reported a bad smell.

Ms Wilson’s neighbour Alan was found dead in the flat, and his body was taken away by officers.

Since then, nobody has been back to clean the council-owned property, and the flat has become ‘infested’ with flies that have started to escape into other parts of the building, including Ms Wilson’s bedroom.

“It’s just awful,” she said. “Now Alan’s flat is infested with flies. If you look through the window you can see it is crawling with them.

"The body was taken away on Thursday August 13. They should have been in and cleaned and fumigated the flat. I am concerned for the health of the people who live here.

“There are now flies in the stairwell and when I came into my flat I found one dead on the side. I’ve had to kill the ones that have come into my flat.”

Ms Wilson phoned the council and Environmental Health to complain, and was told somebody would be round to clean and that she should get back in touch in a week if nothing happened.

When nobody turned up, she got back in touch with the council on Friday (August 21) and was told that no date could be given when a person would be round to fumigate the building.

Now, almost two weeks later (August 26), the block of flats remain infested and Ms Wilson went away to Cleethorpes for the weekend just to get away from the flies.

"Maybe they think covid is an excuse, but that is all the more reason to clean it,” Ms Wilson added.

"I am angry with the council. The upstairs flat are upset about it as well. It is disgusting.”

Sheffield Council have been contacted and asked to provide a comment.