People living at a block of flats where a woman was stabbed say life has been made unbearable by a string of incidents.

In the latest two women and a man were arrested after the woman was stabbed at Star House in Pudding Lane, Maidstone, on Sunday night.

One young mum, with a six-year-old daughter, said she had had to call the police herself two nights before after a man was hammering on her door and shouting threats at midnight.

She said: "There are loud parties, people shouting and swearing, my daughter is often frightened."

She also said at least three of the flats in the four-storey block had at sometime been taken over by drug dealers 'cuckooing' tenants who were themselves addicts - including her own flat before she moved in.

Cuckooing is the practice of drug dealers, often associated with county lines dealing, taking over the homes of vulnerable people and using them as bases for illegal activities.

The young mum has lived in Maidstone since February 2019 after being rehomed at Star House from Newham in London.

Both Newham and Waltham Forest councils have leased properties at Star House to provide "temporary" accommodation for those on their housing registers.

A second woman, rehoused to Star House by Waltham Forest council, said: "People in Maidstone blame the residents coming from London for the trouble, but that is not the case. We are generally families. It's the homeless people put in here by Maidstone council who are causing most of the trouble, they tend to be single and suffering from a drink or drugs addiction."

She described finding somebody drunk on the floor of the lift at 9am one morning.

Both women were highly critical of the ZFA Group, the London-based management agency that is responsible for maintaining the 44-apartment block.

One said: "There is supposed to be CCTV, but only one camera is working and that looks over the bins."

The other said: "The catch on the front door has been broken for weeks, so anybody can walk in at any time."

"Sometimes people have come in off the street and dossed down in the corridors."

The women said that attempts to persuade the management agents or the councils to take action had been ignored.

ZFA were contacted for comment.

Kent Police were unable to give any details of how often they were called to the block of flats.

Maidstone council said it was currently housing only two people in temporary accommodation in Star House.

Police said that following the arrests a 28-year-old woman had been bailed to return to the police station on Christmas Eve, and a 42-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man had been bailed to return on December 30.

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