Is our town a shithole..

Well you pay for dog training classes. Would people pay for kid training classes?

It has always seemed illogical to me that the most important job in the world - raising children - is a job that no-one gets any training for.
And more importantly, if you haven't been parented properly yourself you have no idea at all what 'normal' parenting looks like.

You can go to dog-training classes but not kid-training classes.🙄

It has always seemed illogical to me that the most important job in the world - raising children - is a job that no-one gets any training for.
And more importantly, if you haven't been parented properly yourself you have no idea at all what 'normal' parenting looks like.

You can go to dog-training classes but not kid-training classes.🙄

The problem is, we have a benefit system that encourages the worst members of society to have lots of kids, who they then raise to be just like them. I don’t mean the poor (it’s the good people on low incomes who are their main victims). I mean the violent, ignorant, anti-social scumbags who make their neighbours’ lives a living hell. Some people are not fit to have or raise children. Every sane, rational human being knows this. It’s crazy that people with a record of abusing and neglecting children are allowed to have more. We (quite rightly) stop people who’ve abused animals from keeping them. Yet people who abuse and neglect their kids, and who raise them to be violent and feral, are not only allowed to have more but paid by the taxpayer for doing so.

@taxguru The Planning Authorities have actively prevented redevelopment of many town centres. Lots of people didn’t like the sprawl of out of town shopping zones. My nearest larger town has several mostly anchored by big supermarkets. The planning authority still zone the town centre for retail and don’t want shops to change to residential. So empty shops. The torn centre is obviously too big with a mall that doubled its size. Even the small town 2 miles away from us has empty shops where owners have battled for years to get them returned to residential. They even look like houses.

We actually have a lot amenities for younger people but the ones who cause the issues (a tiny minority) don’t use them, as they didn’t use the youth club when that was running. Councils can provide all sorts of amenities but these don’t appeal to the people who wreak havoc. Especially in larger towns. Their lifestyle isn’t sport, enjoying a park (except for dubious reasons), or using amenities. Around where we are it’s racing cars on the roads late at night whilst the police are tucked up having cocoa.

I thought councils were limited to a maximum of 5% increases. I'm sure I remember an announcement a few years ago. I must Google it.

Just checked it is under 5% increase per annum in England, since 2023, before that it was lower.

Do you believe they used them? I’d like to get something similar to stop the feral little bastards from crawling all over a block of flats where a relative lives. An old woman lives there too and she’s scared witless. The police do NOTHING. The councillors do NOTHING. My relative has to be up for work at 4 am, they’re up there setting fires and screaming until 11.00. If they fall, they’ll be seriously hurt, no one gives a shit and certainly not the parents.

That seems a bit ‘conspiracy theory’ rather than it being a complex problem.

To save money. Hah every year the council tax goes up 10% . 30% in three years.

I think banning drinking alcohol in certain places would be a good idea.
I also disagree with ploughing more money into the pockets of those who don’t work. I think those who don’t work should be made to do community work such as litter picking as part of the reward for getting benefits. You want the tax payer to provide you with a free home whilst you lay about terrorising people in public spaces? Then you do something worthwhile to earn it.
Give them something to occupy their time and when they have to put back into the community they should respect it more.
Same with housing. It’s no coincidence that the majority of scruffy homes- the ones with absolute shit piled up in their front gardens and who seem incapable of ever putting rubbish in a bin, don’t actually pay for their housing.
I don’t think the answer is to keep giving them more, rather make them earn it.

To save money. Hah every year the council tax goes up 10% . 30% in three years.

Do you feel safe going out alone?

To save money. Hah every year the council tax goes up 10% . 30% in three years.

Have we been told why? It’s such an asinine decision. Do they want everyone cooped up in their little boxes as we were told to be during Covid?

What's happened in my town is some shops have closed, the redevelopment is flats, some for supported living for pensioners. On the ground floor new small shop units, coffee shop and a nice seating area. The flats provide customers for the shops so more shoppers around in the town centre and yes bigger shops have gone but opportunity for some specialist shops and local branch of a big supermarket. It seems to be working well.

I think this is why there's finally a lot more attention to the problem! My home town became a shithole in the 90s when the seaside trade had long gone, attractions closed (meaning no day trippers either), and the council filled the empty boarding houses by bussing in "Problem" people from other areas, such as newly released prisoners, but put nothing in place to support them, employ them, etc. It was entirely foreseeable that putting people into areas with little employment and few amenities that they wouldn't be "rehabilitated" and become worthy working members of society! No one listened then.

Now that the contagion is spreading to towns which had remained "naice" over the past couple of decades, people are finally talking about it and wanting action. Shame that those in "naice" areas didn't show any interest when it was seaside resorts, and ex-industrial towns that were in massive difficulties. Now it's spreading and literally "coming to a town near you", more and more people are seeing it for themselves and suffering the consequences.

It's been clear for 2 or 3 decades that town centres needed to be remodelled and redeveloped with the shops closing down and remaining empty. Yet successive governments have kicked the problem into the long grass. They've relied on property developers to buy and renovate the properties that could make them a killing by conversion to "posh" flats or student lettings. Nothing was done about all the properties that the developers didn't want, which continue to lay empty and deteriorate, being a blight on the High Street!

Local and national politicians have turned a blind eye to it all which is in itself a national disgrace. But now it's so widespread, they can't ignore it any longer, and, in part, it's why Farage and Reform have become so popular. Boris was popular when he said he was going to "level up" such areas, but sadly, as history proves, he could talk the talk but didn't walk the walk!

For 2/3 decades, the only "investment" in such areas was stupid expensive statues or other artworks in the middle of roundabouts funded by the EU. These areas needed jobs, they needed town centre redevelopment - stupid expensive statues don't do anything for those unemployed or minimum wage workers who can't afford their utility bills nor food!

Our council has shut most public toilets so visitors are using beaches, woodland, etc as toilets. 🙄

I know this will go down like a lead balloon but...

Every time we get time off, the automatic instinct is to escape—book flights, spend big abroad, and get away from our everyday surroundings.

We pour our hard-earned money into other countries' economies while local services struggle, high streets fade, and public spaces decline. What if, instead of always trying to get away, we invested in making the places we live actually worth staying in?

A cultural shift fund or initiative where, instead of a holiday abroad, people contribute part of that money to local services, community projects, green spaces, and cultural activities. What if we built the kind of towns and cities we didn’t feel the need to run from?
We’ve normalised escape, but maybe transforming what’s around us—supporting local businesses, improving public areas, and helping to shape thriving, connected communities, who enjoy where they live.

A pipe dream but one I think about a lot.