A mum-of-four says her children are too afraid to sleep in their beds due to a mouse infestation at her block of flats which has been blighting her life for years.

The 26-year-old, who wished to remain anonymous, says she has found the creatures all over the two-bedroom council flat, in Snow House, Gillingham which she rents through Medway Council, including in their beds.

In one horrifying instance, she says a mouse jumped out of her two-week-old son's carry-cot.

The mum says the vermin problem existed when she moved into the block in 2018, but peaked last winter when there would be up to five or six mice in each room at any given moment.

She says she has contacted the council regularly since last year, who have sent pest control teams around "five or six times" to put out poison, with little success.

Now she says her mental health is suffering and she has applied to move, even considering sending her children to live elsewhere.

Mark Breathwick, head of housing at Medway Council, said: “We are aware of the situation and an investigation is underway.”

The mum-of-four said her children are too scared to sleep because of the mice.

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She explained: "When I was 34 weeks pregnant back in May, they were running around my kids' bedrooms.

"I've seen them in their beds, so my three year-old, five year-old and 15-week-old all sleep on the sofa with me now because I don't like the thought of mice being on them.

"I had a baby in June, and when he was two weeks old I was carrying him in his carry-cot and a mouse jumped out of it.

"There's mice everywhere. It's honestly too much. It's chaos every day.

"My eight-year-old son is in Year 4 and his teachers have been pulling me up because he's always tired at school, but I have to tell them it's because he's petrified of the mice and just can't sleep."

She said although there were mice in the flat when she moved in, they had disappeared for a while before returning in May 2021.

In July, her flat flooded, and she and her family were moved into a hotel for four nights, and then temporary accommodation.

She said: "I actually begged them not to put me back here afterwards, but they did, and the mice were even worse than before.

"I've spent so much money on traps and poisons and to fill the holes they come in through. But when the holes get filled in they just chew through something else somewhere else."

The mum is so paranoid that she vacuums the flat every morning and every night. She said: "I have an umbilical hernia so I really shouldn't be hoovering this much, but I always make sure there's not even a trace of food, or any crumbs.

"Everything is spotless. Then by the morning, or the end of the day, there's mouse droppings everywhere again."

She said that a surveyor and later a housing officer "had her in tears" when they blamed the infestation on her children's toys. She said: "I have four children in a two-bedroom flat, am I supposed to not let them have toys?

"The housing officer visit was two days after my son's birthday. Of course there were toys out. But it can't just be the toys, I keep the flat so clean and so many of my neighbours also have mice in their flats."

She said surveyors also blamed the building's bin chute, which is often overflowing by Sundays.

She put a sign on the door last year, asking her neighbours not to leave their rubbish bags next to the chute but added: "I know they don't really have a choice when it's full and nothing can go down it. But what else can we do? What can I do?

"I've contacted rehousing now because it has really impacted my mental health. I've had to go on medication for it because I feel like my kids are in danger. I even wanted to hand the kids over to the three youngests' dad, but he's in a one-bedroom flat so he can't fit himself plus four children in there."

She said the council had "neglected" the block and that it had taken 10 weeks for a housing officer to respond to her after she first raised the infestation issue. She claims she has had little communication since.

The mum did however praise the "brilliant" pest control teams and the Mears contractors which she said had come to fill the holes the mice were getting in through.

She also thanked Cllr Pat Cooper who she said had done her best to help.

'The mice used to run between our legs while we were eating dinner'

Other residents in the block are having similar problems with the vermin.

Another mum living in the building, who wanted only to be referred to as Paris, said the mouse problem was so bad she had to get a cat.

The 22-year-old said: "It started when I moved in, back in January 2021. I'm really not an animal person, but I had to get myself a cat, to fix the problem because the council won't.

"The council wanted us to pay to lay down poison, and I know some of my neighbours have done that, but I've decided not to bother, hence the cat."

The mum-of-two said there had been fewer pests since, adding: "Before, the mice used to run between our legs while we were eating dinner. We still get a few, but not like before.

"We can still hear them in the floorboards though, my son can't sleep. And my two children wouldn't go up or down the stairs without me because they were so scared."