To feel so sad about what happened to our town?

14 years of the tories in power has resulted in a complete erosion of most social services, which leads to scenarios like the one you’re describing.

I live in a nice area but not far from a really horrible one. It's definitely gone downhill but has always been known as a troubled area.

Hahaha where? I'm in stapleford sw notts.

We lived in the outskirts of a market town. Opposite us was an open field with a small river and a footpath and trees , it was a nice place to live.
Then a pizza place opened up ( Dominoes ) and we had delivery drivers and mopeds up and down the road using it as a cut through. We moved.

I was telling my son the other day that I used to work in a youth club. He said, "what's a youth club?". Isn't that sad? They've all closed around here. We're fortunate and can afford activities etc.. for our kids. I think it has a lot to do with government policy and budgets. I work in criminal justice. Years ago prison leavers had priority when released so they could go straight into a hostel. That is not the case any more, hence the greater visibility of street homeless people. It is depressing and I worry when my kids want to go in to town.

Generations of people on benefits, when you do not need to work then some don’t. Safety net has been allowed to be abused. Same with education and speaking properly, it is not valued because if you do not need to, why bother, you are surrounded by ppl same as you and you are fed and sheltered.

Brawlers used to go to war and die or people would die of diseases, now they do not. The world population has doubled since the 1970s.

Zero tolerance for crime and drugs would solve it but the bleeding heart brigade would be all over it, like the recent thread about how some poor 18 yr old MN dd had to deal with them in the toilets at Greggs.

Sympathy for those that fall between the cracks is fine, but it doesn’t get the job done. Families should look after their struggling young person, a lot can be helped by a caring family with strong discipline, expectations and standards.

Yes, you are describing my city centre, it's dreadful. We are in the SW but I think we have more in common with Northern towns who have had their industry decimated and nothing to replace it. I can't believe we always return a Tory MP! Although I am not sure with globalisation and technology that anybody can sort this.

@Fallenangelofthenorth yes Halifax

You could be describing my home town. It was always a dive but imo three things have had a massive impact. Out of town shopping like Bluewater and lakeside. London rent cap resulting in a huge influx of Londers resulting in developers buying and converting every house that hits the market into bedsits. Cost of living crisis.

If I ever did want pop to the shops ( if I still lived there) unless I wanted something in Primark I wouldn't set foot in the town. If I wasn't born and bred local I'd not feel safe for a start but that's lost its benefit as I don't feel like it's my home town, I don't recognise it. It's like a shity London suburb from the 90s, like Depford used to be before it was developed.

Imagine if your town is all victorian terraced houses and slowly all around you there's ten families / couples to each three bed victorian terrace. It turns towns into hubs for people that can only aspire to bedsit living.

Where I live now its expensive and posh as just as close to London but on the other side. We have a influx of professional beggers driven in via vans every day. I had one smart clean man chase up to me asking for cash. Unfortunately that's why I prefer shopping centres. No aggressive beggers in Bluewater for example. People with cash don't want to be having a that experience. The worse it gets, the more it drives the money away. If I was back in Kent, I'd be shopping at Bluewater too dispite the drive being ten times longer.

is this Southport? we were shocked ! visiting after a few years, the dereliction,
in the once proud and well kept town, now there are doorway dwellers, shuttered shops, awful

Halifax? The market used to be bustling when I worked there a good few years ago now. I was shocked when I went back recently. And the restaurants in the Piece Hall were completely dead - this was on a Friday tea time.

Same here. Pretty seaside town, now it’s full of vape shops, phone screen repair places, dog shit and oddballs hanging around shouting abuse at people walking past. Rubbish everywhere because for some reason the council have boarded up the bins (why???!) and the general decay you talk about. Really sad.

I’m guessing it’s the same town I live in. Seen it discussed lots on here too. It’s shit. I hate living here. I dream of winning some money and moving. Even without the problems there’s bugger all here now. No shops/no jobs, it’s crap. It’s also the reason I’ve always had to commute to cities as there’s sod all locally.

No idea what the answer is. It feels like people just don’t care anymore. It was never an amazing place but there were some decent companies that employed a lot of locals and trained them in a trade. The town centre had shops too, as a teen my friends and I could spend a Saturday afternoon there. Barely anything to merit an hours visit now. There’s one specific place I go to, as it’s the only one in my general area, otherwise I’d never visit the centre at all.

Where I live we had some.problems because drug addicts from cities were relocated here to get them away from their network. Guess what? They made their own one here! Cue deals being done out of their accommodation too floor, dropping down to the street.
It's not as bad as some places and seems they've stopped this particular council initiative.
A good influx of European workers has improved the area now, mixed it up a bit from.just the yokels who have lived here for generations. Encouraged growth, new shops etc.
Online shopping and covid has shut down quite a few businesses however. We mostly seem able to support hairdressers and cafes!

Our city center has gone a bit like this as much as sad as that is to say. I moved here for Uni in 2011 and there were bad parts and better parts like any other city, but it never felt dodgy or unsafe. I don't regularly visit the city center anymore as I don't really enjoy shopping and there isn't a lot to do with a toddler. There was an event at the weekend which DPs hobby group were doing something at so we went along, mainly all happening around the edge of the main centre. Left DP to do his thing so I could go to a shop to grab some bits with our toddler. Walking through the nicer part of town was fine, until I hit the main part. I was shocked at how dirty it was, how many dodgy looking folk were around, endless amounts of deliveroo drivers taking up benches smoking and shouting at each other, so many homeless people, preachers getting aggressive with people, blokes selling stuff out of suitcases from empty shop doorways with megaphones, clearly off their face junkies. I had to get cash out and I felt actually scared. I didn't stay in that part for long. It's a shame as it used to be generally ok, but the difference between the "nicer" part and the main part was stark!!

I think that a lot of towns are going through similar, OP.

I live a few miles from the south coast, and the deprivation in our coastal towns has grown at an alarming rate over the 30-ish years I've lived here. Homelessness and addiction appear to be rife, mental health services are broken, and the gap between rich and poor is getting ever wider.

A couple of the towns had shiny new shopping centres built in the 90s and noughties, they're now full of empty units. The parks are neglected, the streets are filthy and they're just depressing.

I'm elderly and disabled. I won't go to our local town now, it doesn't feel safe for all the above reasons ☹️

It’s definitely got worse over the last 10 years. My city centre is full of druggies even at lunchtime, some of them are shouting and swearing at themselves, it’s feels scary, there’s a tension in the air that wasn’t there before. Also more empty shops and groups of kids hanging around. It’s a shame, we have definitely gone backwards and it’s only getting worse

The Council in a nearby town centre converted a large building into halfway house type shelter for people with drug and alcohol addictions. Some of the occupants are aggressive and frightening and their fights, dealers and mates and troubles spill out throughout the town. The town centre now feels mencing, particularly at night. That's the night time economy fucked up then. I stay away. I get these shelters are necessary but not in the town centre at the cost of losing businesses and harassing locals.

Could this have happened in your town too?

Economic decline caused by austerity economics, followed by Brexit, followed by Covid, followed by war and war footing in Eastern Europe, which exacerbated extant food and fuel inflation while jobs and industries were being lost. Less money in the economy means less in our own pockets and in those of the government which means further austerity, which means fewer services to help the mentally ill, and fewer police on the streets to police their behaviour when it escalates.

All caused by thick and greedy public school boys who have beguiled you and me into thinking they’re intelligent people capable of making good decisions just because they were taught at their expensive schools how to mask their idiocy and how to get places at Oxford university. They were then busy shagging their subordinates, dodging taxes, and enriching the friends who will give them jobs after the election.

Meanwhile the same Tories will tell you it’s about illegal immigrants in small boats.