Is our town a shithole..

Same here.

We have two people who sell the Big Issue, but no people begging. We certainly don't have people lying in parks etc, drunkenness is occasionally a thing in the town centre when the pubs close, but not routinely.

We have lost a fair few shops (I especially miss the hardware shop, you have to do a minimum 15-mile round trip for any of that sort of stuff now), but they have mostly been either converted into houses at the top end of town, or become antique shops, very high end boutiques, or coffee shops. I swear you could have a cup of coffee every day for at least a fortnight without ever going in the same place twice.

Sounds like here in Peterborough. I grew up in the city, it was lovely and peaceful with excellent links to London and nature walks. May I say before anyone jumps down my neck, it was always a multiracial city. My once favourite street was a mix of British and Asian families. The crime became too high to stay there, especially theft and sexual assaults. It's not just the 'white' people who are disheartened.

Unfortunately the council allowed too many HMOs and hotels housing boat people etc. With a massive shortage of housing many eastern European men are living in bushes, drinking and taking drugs, and the area that was a nature walk is now a no-go. The hotels that are housing immigrants are no-go areas, especially for young women.

The city centre is trash, John Lewis closed shop a few years ago. Many offices and buildings in the city centre are now flats. Many people left the city to live in the surrounding towns. This made way for even more HMO.

I blame it on the council, obviously desperate for back handers and quick money making schemes. It seems to have gone too far too reverse the damage.

What more can I say, apart from I fully understand you. And although I didn't vote in the last election, I can understand why people are voting Reform. It is about time the people were listened to.

Too few jobs. Too many poorly paid jobs. Lack of meaning and purpose in peoples, especially men’s, lives. General dissolution of the social glue that enabled large amounts of people to live very closely together. I go into Birmingham occasionally and there are so many young men clearly without much structure in their lives. Humans need purpose and meaning and structure. Otherwise a kind of fatalistic nihilism takes root.

Originally from a rough council estate in Derby too and agree with everything you say. I moved away to a town slightly further south - was ok when I first moved, and nicer living in a town rather than a city. Now, not so much. Constant traffic issues, homeless and drug addicts everywhere which we never used to see, many many incidents of teenage boys mugging and stabbing, an abundance of vape shops, kebab shops and Turkish barbers and not much else. At least Derby are trying in the city centre with the regeneration of various places.

My son went to university in a west Yorkshire town 1998-2001. He had a great experience. Went back six years ago on business just before COVID so summer 2019. He was dismayed at the changes and how run down it was.

Going back can be a shock.

This . If we didn’t have rubbish feral people any area could be significantly improved . No-one has any sense of pride or care about anywhere , antisocial behaviour is the scourge of most communities.

It sounds like your town council could do more to police and maintain the town centre.

I do think that's a big difference between center we are close to and town center down the road. The council down the raod have done everything they can to hang onto the shopping center and bring people in - indeed last town we lived in was very proactive and their shopping center still busy and kept many more shops.

Current council we're under has grand ideas that tend not to pan out as expected. The local collge wanted to move into a city space and council have had an issue with it - would mean students and staff in center. Local housing doing up flats above shop to rent out have found them a barrier. They knocked down the lesuire center few years ago and closed it before covid - and have yet to break ground on new site and when they do it's not in center. They keep okaying more out of town shopping sites with one of two big stores - again leading people away from the center. So footfall continues to decline and now they are talking about big road works that will impact access to center - though no-one clamouring for the propsed change all groups seem to be against it- it changes it back to layout two decades ago which also had problems - yet they are ploughing ahead.

😁 Why, yes!

Town centres are dying because people won't spend more when there's a cheaper alternative (OOT retail and the internet). People are also lazy and won't walk, and often town centre car parks are a total rip off, because local authorities see them as cash cows and lack the initiative and bravery to think of alternative revenue.

Once footfall decreases in town centres, there's inevitable degradation.

I won't talk about immigration too much because I'll be labelled a bigot, but I think you'd have to be naive at best if you think that huge numbers of unemployed/low paid males coming into a completely different culture where women have a very different status is going to have a positive effect on social cohesion.

Plus - and this might sound contentious but it really isn't - there's the death of shame as a concept. No longer are many people ashamed to be seen in public off their faces in the middle of the day. They're not ashamed to be seen behaving loudly or aggressively in public because there's literally no consequence. Many people are surrounded by unchallenged terrible behaviour from the moment they draw their first breath, and they think it's the norm. And depressingly, it IS the norm. There's no pride in anything for its own sake, such as contributing to community or doing something for others.

The pandemic helped make people more selfish, more entitled, more badly behaved. And the countless billions the country spaffed away on furlough and grants mean there's fuck all money left. Despite being taxed more than we ever have, more and more of this is just going on the debt.

@Meadowfinch now that’s one reason I think here in Bath has remained ‘relatively ok’ - we do not have big out of town retail parks and our cinemas ( several) theatres and restaurants have remained central so trade is directed centrally .

You've been dying to get there, haven't you OP. I'm amazed it's taken this long.

Are you usually so cheerful ? 😁

Our city is like this. Alcohol and heroin. A few years ago it was spice. Many people mistake them for being homeless but they actually aren’t.

My closest town isn't like that. There is a town order that prohibits drinking alcohol on the streets. The council has been careful to maintain the town centre regardless of covid. We had some shop closures of course but we also have two farmers markets and a general market each week. We have a Victorian park with renovated bandstand used every weekend. We have a bowling green, public tennis courts, boating lake, skateboard park and outdoor gym. All well maintained.

The town hall is used for art exhibitions and dance competitions, the canal has barges. We still have a cricket club, race course and lido. I've never felt unsafe even after dark, and I cycle and run on my own a lot.

They've mostly avoided out off town shopping and so our cinema and theatre are still in the town centre. They work hard on an events calendar and keeping the place clean. . It is generally a nice place to live, although we also have a very small 'tent city' tucked away out of sight, which is ludicrous in an area with stud farms and a castle.

It sounds like your town council could do more to police and maintain the town centre. A zero tolerance approach might help. But some towns where the main employer/industry has disappeared are so strapped for cash they have higher priorities.

A culture of community volunteering helps too . Parish councils and pushy residents' associations tend to get things done.

There’s no doubt that Amazon is convenient.

Local town is very deprived and has massive drug problems, and lots of boarded up shops. However we don’t see big groups of drinkers in parks etc because it’s illegal to drink in public except in licensed outdoor premises. Each council here can make its on rules on outdoor consumption of alcohol (Scotland). Of course the rules are flouted but I think they still act as a bit of a deterrent.

@Mishmashs because both Reform and Daily Mail plus most media offer only criticism of anything that does not fit their political agenda. See for example the Winter fuel allowance-absolute outrage , so yes a bit of reflection and back tracking and then we get headlines such as ‘our children will be paying for this’ - they offer no reflection on why things are as they are in society that doesn’t fit their agenda of blaming it on anytime that isn’t white British or doesn’t suit the views of mainly older people or those who don’t like foreigners whose first language isn’t British or those who aren’t obsessively patriotic because they know where their bread is buttered or where they can count on votes. Pure self interest. I’m not an ardent lefty, very much in the centre but the obsession with pandering to white van man or ‘a lot of’ ( not all) the elderly population is supremely depressing. Farage and his ilk have no actual solutions for society’s ills that don’t come at very considerable cost to either pockets, personal welfare or environmental issues , they are utterly retrogressive- but some people just hear the headlines- maybe the Mail and the Express should start having some proper neutral journalism examining issues- im
open minded, I’ve even agreed with Dan Hodges a few times on Twitter -

the fact is the reasons we have real issues are multi faceted. The country has done some really stupid things starting with Thatcher for short termism - selling off social housing was one, selling off utilities anotger( although I agree with telecoms as other options were available and encouraged competition). I still though can’t get my water from Welsh reservoirs regardless of who I pay my bill too or dictate where my electricity actually comes in from.

then we have the fact we had a lot of ‘big’ spaces in towns - be that banks, BJS, Debenhams, Littlewoods, Woolworths, Wilkinson’s etc - these left huge blank spaces when they exited that are hard to fill given the fact we have horrendously high rents and business rates AND a declining footfall due to online shopping - so we get a few more mid range restaurants - not necessarily great when COL has gone through roof for many and stagnating wages. We have in many parts of the country people forced into private rentals and just about coping but not much spare cash , huge child care costs and until recently very little subsidies for any under 3s -

then of course we have Brexit in the mix, whether or not you agree with it and I personally think pointless and expensive, it’s made it that blokes if a bit short of work can’t just go off and do a contract in the EU , especially in trades- reverse of course is also true, and areas that were regularly getting improvement funds are now not seeing this nor do any big EU employers rush to base themselves here - I wouldn’t either.

we lived in Copenhagen for 20 months- it’s not difficult to pinpoint why they have less issues - it’s very much a society will look after you but you do your bit mentality - most couples work and mainly full time or at least 25 hours- childcare is very cheap and good quality, no council tax, lots of very good social housing, tax is high , anti social behaviour totally frowned on . There isn’t this mentality of let’s screw the system and work as little as we can get away with and get top ups - it’s just a very different mentality . Apart from a few quite deprived areas with mainly non EU immigrants where it did seem a bit more disordered on the whole it was very ordered , and order was expected , no doubt some would think boring .

Well it's all by convenience. If I could get what I buy on Amazon in my town centre, with decent customer service, then I would. Amazon fills a consumer need - quality goods, fast delivery.

Amazon will completely take over for everything. Huge, ugly warehouses will continue to be built and become full of imports from China and there will be no need for any other shops eventually. We are being laid to waste in this country and it’s all by design.

Everyone shops online via Amazon or some other foreign owned seller, we buy Chinese made goods and if we go to supermarkets much is imported food- so all the money that used to go to British manufacturers, shop owners,tax from shop owners to council, uk farmers, uk food processors goes out of the country.
So our money is gone elsewhere -so there is nothing to pay for stuff here. No construction,public transport, etc etc etc

Are you Matt Vickers, OP?

In our area the majority of HMOs seem to be filled with single Eastern European men, Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian, and a number of them have huge problems with alcohol. Judging from posts on the local next door app young men from largely Asian backgrounds share rooms in family properties as lodgers.