'We feel like bed bugs are crawling all over us'

Terri Avery and her family have been affected by the bedbug infestation

People living in a block of flats in Brighton say their homes are "riddled" with bed bugs.

Residents at Kingfisher Court in Albourne Close, Whitehawk, say the parasites are "living within the fabric of the building" and at least four flats have been infested.

Pest controllers hired by Brighton & Hove City Council have been spraying individual flats but residents say the whole building needs to be fumigated to solve the problem.

The council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it had scheduled two bedbug treatments after receiving a complaint from a resident in August.

Terri Avery, 32, moved in with her family in April and said she only found out recently about the bed bugs.

"I’m covered in over 100 bites, there’s going to be hundreds in there. We are riddled with them," she said.

"I put clean washing out on my balcony, bring it in and I have to physically shake off the bed bugs."

Residents at Kingfisher Court, Brighton, have had problems with bed bugs for months

Mrs Avery said: "There’s only so many you can kill or catch because they move a metre a minute. It’s within the walls, they’re coming through the walls and plug sockets.

"The safest bet would be to get everyone out and fumigate the whole building."

She said fumigating flat by flat was not working and it had been an issue for years.

She added: "I think the council owe everyone an apology, especially us tenants sitting here crying, wondering where we’re going to find the thousands of pounds to replace the furniture we’re throwing away."

Another resident said they had had an infestation as far back as 2020. They said it had been resolved but they still saw “the odd one” in their flat.

Bedbugs have been found on a mattress in one of the flats

One woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told BBC Sussex: "You don’t sleep anyway with a young baby but we’ve barely slept. We feel like bugs are crawling all over us all the time.

"The mental impact it has I don’t think anyone understands. They are so difficult to get rid of.

"People have been told they’re in the fabric of the building so they’re going to be almost impossible to get rid of."

Kingfisher Court is one of eight council blocks in Brighton which could be demolished in the future due to structural failings.

Councillor Gill Williams, cabinet member for housing and new homes, said: “We completely appreciate how disruptive bedbugs can be and how frustratingly difficult they are to remove from a property.

“When we received a report of bedbugs from a resident in this block back in August, we scheduled two separate treatments on their home – one in September and a second in October.

“Both of these have taken place but, as time needs to be left between treatments, we asked the resident to contact us if the second treatment had not proved successful.

“We have not heard from them directly since but clearly there is still an issue so we will contact them again to discuss the situation and see what additional work is needed.

“I would also encourage any council tenant to contact us if they have any concerns about bedbugs in their home so we can deal with it as quickly and efficiently as possible.”