Is our town a shithole..

I used to live and work there in the late 1990s and the High Street was ok then Had to visit it late last year and it really has gone bad. Plenty of work & money in Slough - I really don't understand why it now so awful.

👍

I haven’t seen a post like that, so perhaps it was that one.

Pubs are now expensive - maybe all the men were stashed away inside pubs in the past? @FroggletTowers - now they’re buying take out and sitting around

Because it’s outing. OP has friends and family.

I don't know if that was the Middle Eastern one, where OP came unstuck. I have been flitting the thread.

Yes, I have noticed this. The population of my home town seems to have exploded recently, and the place feels cramped and suffocating. I often see groups of young men in the middle of the weekday wandering around aimlessly. They don't seem to be addicts though. And they don't seem to be homeless either. I think the majority are recently arrived immigrants. I only say that because I work in town and often go for a walk during my break. When I walk past them, they're almost never speaking English.

There are just too many people crammed into this small island. I'm sorry but there are. In the last decade I have watched the countryside near me slowly destroyed by developers. My local woods have been hacked down to make way for two new estates, and now the fields in the centre of the village are going to be built on as well. Anyone who lives in a city and thinks they're going to retire to the countryside is living in la la land. By the time most of us retire there won't be any countryside – just a sea of new build rabbit hutches jammed on top of one another.

Yes, except the deleted one.

Yes, I’ve read them all, apart from the deleted one. Which bit specifically have I missed?

ETA I haven’t fallen for anything, although I know you’re doing that that faux goady ‘gotcha’ thing because the OP did mention Middle Eastern men once and then clarified that there are more white British men involved.

I grew up in Slough and felt it didn’t deserve its reputation growing up - full employment, new shopping centre, not pretty but safe and affluent. I visited last year some 35 years after leaving and was horrified, it is most definitely the grimmest town in the UK (has been voted most miserable place to live two years in a row by its own inhabitants). The town centre is virtually derelict but house prices are really high. I can’t imagine a worse place to live 😱.

Totally agree. They just lost a lot of policy items that lots of people want - lower taxes, increased housing, productivity, sort out the NhS… absolutely no outline on how to fund.

Amazed how so many posters have fallen for it.

It's happening everywhere. My parents have lived in the Notting Hill/Kensington area of London for 43 years and there are gangs of men cropping up everywhere.

I recently walked through Bayswater's shopping district while visiting mum, and I counted 11 homeless/obvious drug addicts lying on the pavement on just one street (Queensway) and multiple guys nestled in doorways or at the back of dental practices and other buildings when I left the main road and took the scenic route through the backstreets

I saw 1 woman defecating/urinating in a shop doorway opposite the 100 million pound new Whitleys shopping centre, and a cluster of 10-15 shabby drunks squatting in the stairwell of a large housing block opposite the local Waitrose. The noise and the smell of skunk was overpowering

My parents and their neighbours have had to call police several times to get groups of homeless/drug addicts removed from their street, where they like to camp out on people's doorsteps at night or sleep in the local residents communal garden and dog park. (Of course, they trash the place). 2 dumped a pair of mattresses in a neighbour's back garden and tried to set up a base there!!!

My parents have friends in Kentish Town, Primrose Hill and Camden who report similar issues ... There are also occasionally big groups of young men (roadmen) hanging around outside housing blocks and local parks as well, drinking/smoking at all hours.

outside London, my friends in Northampton, Cambridgeshire, Kent, Manchester/Cheshire report similar issues to yours OP. It's incredibly grim. Instead of rioting over the bogeyman of 'mass' immigration, people really ought to be protesting about this.

New laws introducing curfews or bans on large groups congregating like this are really needed for these guys. It's not right that we have to be hyper vigilant now while simply going about our lives

And if the third has a label saying it’s going to electrocute and kill you?

Have you read all OP's posts?

I think @WestwardHo1 has really summed it up. Years go people used to care what the neighbours thought, what your friends parents thought. There are plenty of threads on MN where there is very poor behaviour towards neighbours, teachers well just anyone who isn't you or in your demographic. Many youngsters are also being brough up with this attitude. I just don't know how we can instil a bit of pride in people.

I have no idea what the answer is, I really wish I did

The OP seems pretty reasonable, she’s said the majority are white British men. I think it’s OK for her to want to talk about this, particularly given that it’s reducing the ability of women and children to feel safe. Sometimes I think the goading comes from the other side in these conversations. As if they want to virtue signal by putting words in the OP‘s mouth and start an argument rather than a reasoned discussion.

Maybe your area needs a new police and crime commissioner. We have had a bit of what you mention around here earlier last year, and I agree it makes the area much more depressing and feel unsafe. I had to change the route walking to preschool because I didn’t want DD subjected to men with their d**ks out pissing and worse in the street. But we have a lot of local policing teams that meet regularly with communities in various neighbourhoods and recently the issue has really improved.

One part of the city had a lot regulars drinking on the benches in the pedestrian areas but recently the council put in a new urban playground with more seating and now there are many more parents sat there instead. So I think part of it is having facilities that make it easier for a wide variety of people to use these areas so that they don’t become spots for dodgy behaviour.

But then again many councils are broke (in part due to dodgy funding allocation by previous governments) and can’t afford schemes to benefit the community.

Ive noticed that grass roots local candidates that are willing to get out into the community can also be a huge benefit. (Regardless of party colours) Our local councillor is part of the litter picking team and constantly doing stuff.

Some people say politics doesn’t affect everyday lives but if the people we elect work in the local community and listen to local views it will be possible to turn the situation around.

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

I assumed the deleted post.

I live in a city in NE England. I don't go into the city centre at all, other than for theatre, due to lack of decent shops, homeless beggers (many of whom are actually drug users pretending to be homeless), and, imo, undesirables sitting and wandering around. There are still nice places to walk around the outskirts of the city. The city centre was once thriving - a popular destination for both shopping and nights out. Not any more.

I saw the thread and wondered if it was Wigan. I think the last three such threads have all been about Wigan. Have never been but am now curious to visit. Is Shit Hole tourism a thing?

Why so snarky? It’s obvious the poster was just setting the scene? Geez.