NEIGHBOURS of Caterham's most notorious eyesore say they are under siege from foot-long rats.
Gnawed food, disturbed sleep and dead rodents caught in the kitchen are blighting the lives of flat-dwellers in Croydon Road – who live next door to the derelict and decaying Rose and Young site.
The former car showroom has been the scourge of the town since shutting down 25 years ago. Now a sad wreck, pigeons are among the building's inhabitants.
Father-of-two Chris Reeve says he had to throw away £100 worth of food after a rat nibbled its way through a tub of Pot Noodle in his kitchen last week.
Mr Reeve, 45, whose kitchen wall adjoins the former showroom, said: "We have had to put sticky pad traps down and have caught two rats.
"We've heard rats scurrying around in the Rose and Young site, and seen some running along the boundary wall.
"My boys have been petrified."
Mum-of-two Sharon Hook, 42, said: "Sometimes I have to go to my dad's in Coulsdon to get a decent night's sleep.
"I can hear rats running about in the roof space all night long.
"That building next door has been in a terrible state for far too long. It's high time it was demolished."
Ms Hook, a self-employed hairdresser, said the lack of sleep was making her ill.
Meanwhile Steve Timmins, 22, a personal trainer who lives near the site, said: "I am on tablets for stress, and this situation has not helped at all.
"I am concerned for my partner's daughters, who are aged 8 and 12."
A spokeswoman for Tandridge District Council said an environmental health officer had visited the Rose and Young site on November 14 following a complaint about rats in the adjoining block of flats.
She added: "At the time of the visit there were no indications of an infestation of rodents, so the council has not asked the owner to take any action at this time.
"The owner of the flats has employed a pest control contractor to treat the property."
A legal notice requiring the shabby building be either radically improved or demolished took effect on October 11. The owners have until February 11 to comply.
If they do not, they face possible prosecution – with any fines being continuously imposed on a daily basis.
Site owners Caterham Properties Ltd, based in Derby, has appointed a planning consultant and an architect, who have met up with council planning chiefs pending a possible planning application for the land.
