ROGUE landlords causing misery by cramming dozens of immigrants into small flats will be hunted down, council chiefs promised at a fiery public meeting this week.

More than 200 residents packed a sweltering Lye Community Centre on Tuesday night to voice worries that included Lye High Street and the rear to its shops being used as a human toilet.

The Romanian community was at the centre of most of the concerns, particularly outcries that the War Memorial outside Christ Church is being used as a ‘climbing frame’ and ‘goalpost’.

It was also revealed that Lye Library has had to employ a security guard after anti-social behaviour including drug use.

But many attending the meeting felt a lot of the issues stem from the overcrowding of people in tiny properties and Dudley Council deputy chief executive Alan Lunt agreed.

Mr Lunt promised the jam-packed room an ‘action list’ of their complaints would be drawn up, adding: “Do I think rogue landlords are at work in Lye? Yes. What we’ve got to do is get sufficient evidence.

“Somebody asked ‘Why haven’t doors come off their hinges’? Because we haven’t got the power of entry, we need a warrant. But the standard of evidence we need to get a warrant is significant.

“My private sector housing team will continue to knock on the door of every house where there is a complaint of overcrowding, rogue landlords, HMO (house in multiple occupation).

“We are aware of the rogue landlords and we are going to address the issue."

Mr Lunt added that the authority had recouped £400,000 from a rogue landlord in Dudley and said: “We’re going to use the money to tackle the problem in Lye.”

A concerned resident had said: “Some landlords don’t care that some of these Romanians don’t have electricity, they don’t care that they are overcrowded.

“They are being exploited - by people in this community and further afield. They are living in hell holes."

Another resident added: “These properties are just mattresses on the floor. There’s nowhere to walk, just mattresses. They use outside as a toilet because inside only caters for two people and they have got 20 in there.”

Mr Lunt added: “The fact that no one is here from the Romanian community means that one thing is absolutely true – that there’s an issue with community cohesion and we need to address that.

“We are going to put two additional community development resource workers in – one Romanian speaking – because we think the Romanian community need to know what is and isn’t acceptable to the community around them.

“It’s not just the council, it’s not just the police, it’s a multi-agency approach – and that includes the community. There’s an onus and responsibility on us all to contribute to make Lye the place it once was.”

Crime concerns were raised regularly during the meeting – which lasted two-and-a-half hours – with calls for more of a police presence but officers insisted crime figures for Lye were not markedly high.

That was disputed by residents, who gave accounts of robberies and vandalism, including Karen Yates who runs her own dance school at the United Church in the High Street.

She said: “People are having car windows smashed, the church car park is always bombarded with druggies.

“The police know about it – I’ve phoned them on several occasions but they haven’t come out."

A worker from Lye Library added: “We have had open drug dealing in the library, soft and hard drugs.

“For the first time in my 30 years of working in libraries, we have had to employ a security guard so people feel safe working there and coming into the library.”

Insp Ian Barton, neighbourhood inspector for Dudley West, said allegations of overcrowding and child sexual exploitation in Lye had been investigated and found to be unproven but did admit officers had to get to one flat by ‘an Indiana Jones style bridge’.

But he added: “My gut feeling is we have fake news spreading around the community with one goal - to isolate and exclude the Roma community.”

Residents also reported the front of the Christ Church being used as a ‘football pitch’ with a huge outcry over the disrespect shown to the War Memorial.

Councillor Tim Crumpton, who chaired the meeting, added: “We want the church front cleared up. Many of us have got relatives’ names on the Cenotaph. We want that place made sacred again.”