"Forgotten" residents on a doomed Woolwich housing estate have been left to cope with drug dealers, uncollected rubbish and leaking roofs, it is claimed.

Maryon Road and Grove, Morris Walk and the Connaught estates are being demolished as part of Greenwich Council's huge One Woolwich regeneration project - a 13-year scheme creating 1,615 new homes.

But Morris Walk - a 562-home estate built in the 1960s from pre-fabricated slabs - is not due to be completely emptied of its current tenants for another seven years and in the meantime, it is claimed, the estate is being left to rot.

Graham Ward, who has lived there for 14 years, said he has constantly tried to highlight problems that have made his life and his neighbours' lives a misery including drug use, defecation and urination in communal stairwells unprotected by any security doors.

Mr Ward said: "The places on this estate leak like a sieve and there are hundreds of households here, in similar decrepit circumstances, hoping the council will deliver on their promise to rescue us all from the squalor they have allowed to proliferate, all the while knowing they have failed to do so in the past." 

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He said: "Even if they successfully move my lone voice out of here tomorrow, they still leave hundreds of people depressed, ill, isolated, degraded and in squalid conditions, simply because they think they can discharge their responsibilities towards us by hiding behind a succession of demolition orders."

The 46-year-old has specific problems with a private landlord whose flat continually leaks into his own, creating "a rainforest" effect, which he says the council has failed to help with over the years.

And he says the problems at his flat are to blame for mental health problems that have plagued him in recent years.

He said: "As it is drying out it is a constant drip, drip, drip which penetrates through five out of the six separate areas in my studio flat. 

"And at the point it is possible to rebuild, redecorate and reclaim my home, the next short-term tenant moves in upstairs and starts the whole cycle again." 

Mr Ward has now been offered a new place to live, which he claims is unsuitable and was only offered because he posted a video of his problems online and began to "shake the very top of the tree" by tweeting local politicians directly.

And he warns other tenants may not be so lucky. 

He said: "The whole estate is madness. Because they know they're going to demolish it no one's bothered. 

"The council have been shafted by the government who they won't spend money on it.

"We're the last of three estates around here that's supposed to be demolished. So they don't do repairs, they don't come and empty the bins.

"People here are ill, they've given up hope. The council have forgotten about us because we're inconvenient. No one knows we're here."

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A spokesman for Greenwich Council said: "We accept that it has taken longer than we would expect to resolve the on-going issues with leaks from the property above.  This is partly due to the additional complexity of the property above not being a council property, but we do apologise for any distress this will have caused. 

"We have been working closely with the tenant to resolve his wider housing issues and we have already arranged for a viewing on a property he has indicated he would like to move to. This would be a permanent move.

“In respect of the wider issues around Morris Walk, residents continue to receive the full range of support and security throughout the redevelopment of the Woolwich Estates. 

"This includes the support of safer neighbourhood police and Royal Borough community safety teams, and all key council services including weekly waste collections, street and estate cleaning (including graffiti removal) and housing repairs. 

“Tenants should continue to report their concerns or repairs in the usual way, and they can also contact their local housing teams if they wish to raise additional issues in that way. 

"There are also regular meetings and estate inspections with residents as part of the redevelopment process where comments or concerns can also be addressed.”