” There were no grounds for concern about the children's living conditions…”

Three young children trapped in a squalid 'hell hole'
home were reported to the council by worried neighbours two years before the authorities finally rescued them, it was revealed today.

Hmm, this is becoming a bit of a regular occurrence…

The children, aged one, three and four, were kept in darkness inside the filthy house and never allowed out by their cruel parents.

Neighbours, concerned that the youngsters were hardly ever seen or heard, repeatedly spoke to housing officials about them and have accused social services of negligence.

Surely not!?

Residents say they are furious that the city council tried to claim officials had acted swiftly to help the children after receiving a tip-off.

In reality the authorities did not take concerns about the family seriously enough, neighbours said.

Oh, dear, once again a council's spin slams into the brick wall of cold reality…

The neighbour said they reported their concerns in person to the council official 'on two or three occasions'.

'She told us they were aware there were issues with the family.

Council housing officials would do walkabouts on the estate and they would stand and look at the house quite a few times. Officials went to the house but no one seemed to do anything.

'Seeing those pictures of the state of the house I am really angry that we expressed concerns and nothing was done. Social services should take reports like this more seriously. You only had to stand near the front door and smell it, it was obvious something was wrong.

'You trust the local authority when you report something like this but it wasn't until the police were involved that something was done.'

I’m sure they did ‘do something’ – they ticked the ‘visited house’ box on their sheet, went back to their offices, and called it a day until the next time someone called…

The jailed parents, who cannot be named for legal reasons, did not come from the kind of deprived backgrounds usually found in cases of extreme child negligence.

They met in a nightclub six years ago when she was a first-year university student and he was working as a DJ and part-time graphic designer. The couple quickly moved in together and before long started a family.

He was said to suffer from 'anxiety and fear of open spaces' and according to the woman's family she was 'trapped in an abusive relationship'.

So, it seems despite being ‘highly intelligent’, this woman’s family actually had as much ability to deal with their problems as the average inner-city chav?

And despite knowing about this ‘abusive relationship’, the parents and siblings were content to let little sister wallow in squalor and bring up children in such conditions?

The children's mother, who worked part-time as a caterer, came from a respectable family. Her father is a leading authority on the famous composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, while her sister is a shop manageress and brothers works in television production.

All that family, and they never once raised any concerns over the welfare of their own relatives…? It took strangers to do that?

The local authority has admitted having previous involvement with the family before the parents' arrest late last year, but it denies acting too slowly.

Eoin Rush, assistant director of Children and Families at the council, said: 'The Local Authority's Children Services department has provided occasional advice and support to this family in the past. There were no grounds for concern about the children's living conditions during this period and contact was not related to the more recent acute deterioration in the family household.'

So, you could see and smell the condition of the house, you knew children were living there, but that was ‘no grounds for concern’?

Just how many family houses are there like this in York (of all places) that this could be considered ‘normal’?

York City Council is to hold an internal review to see if lessons can be learned.

Carole Runciman, the councillor overseeing children's services, said: 'No authority is ever perfect but we got the children out reasonably promptly, we know that they are flourishing where they are now and for me the most important thing is they are safe, they are being properly looked after and they have been dealt with through the courts.'

‘Tut! What’s the big deal, it’s all sorted now, isn’t it? Quit complaining…’