WHAT is life like living on a housing estate that has become a ghost town?

The shops have gone and around 1,500 families have moved out but there are still several hundred homes occupied on Kidbrooke’s Ferrier estate.

For the people there, it is fast becoming the crime-ridden, rundown place outsiders always claimed it was - far different to the tightknit community they remember.

Razia Ajmal, 23, has lived on the Ferrier for 10 years with her parents and four siblings.

The Greenwich university student said: “The community was very friendly. When you look at the buildings you think ‘Oh my god, it’s the Ferrier.’ “But when you’re all together it’s a really tight unit.” News Shopper: Several hundred homes are still occupied

'Everything's shut'

The Ajmals have looked on as the majority of facilties have shut down. When I paid a visit Greenwich Community Food Co-op was making its bi-weekly visit to Telemann Square, selling fruit and vegetables to the people who live there.

Miss Ajmal said: “There used to be a drycleaners, a mini-supermarket - now everything’s shut apart from the dentist, doctors and off licence.

“This whole area has emptied out.”

Under council guidelines, tenants are supposed to be made two resonable offers for relocation so their homes can be knocked down and rebuilt.

But the Ajmals say this hasn’t happened and in the meantime their kitchen is covered in damp, their windows have been smashed by vandals and people from outside the estate treat it as a rubbish dump.

News Shopper: Mohamed Ajami outside his home 'We're ignored by everyone'

Meanwhile, next to where demolition has started, Mohamed Ajami has painted the number of his house three-feet high on his wall to remind people the house is occupied.

He explained: “For one-and-a-half months I didn’t receive the post. My bank called me up to ask what was happening, saying all my post was coming back to them.

“I painted my number to show that I still live here. I’ve not moved.

“We’re ignored by everyone here.”

The civil engineer, who has eight children, says: “What can I do? It’s very frustrating. There are not enough larger homes for rent - they’re all for sale.”

The estates demolitions have added concerns about asbestos to worries about crime and the increasing numbers of drug dealers outside at night.

He said: “We feel like we’re being terrorised.

“Some nights I just come down and sit here and think. I’m afraid. I fear for my family.”

News Shopper: The Mottingham 'shack' offered to two disabled elderly residents has been refurbished 'Tin-roofed shack'

A man disgusted by the way his parents were treated has complained to the Local Government Ombudsman.

Disabled couple Kathleen and Dennis Courtnell, currently the only people living in their row of Ferrier homes, were offered a “tin-roofed shack” in Mottingham by Greenwich Council.

Son Ricky, 45, has now written to the authorities to complain about his parents’ treatment.

He revealed that 75-year-old dad Dennis took a fall during the snowy weather and “there was no grit and no neighbours there to help him”.

The “shack” has now been refurbished by the council and is currently occupied by a 51-year-old man recovering from a stroke.