To be finding London increasingly grubby?

[Notcontent]

Ok, this is not a London bashing thread. I actually love lots of things about living in London. And I am lucky enough to live in quite a nice area. BUT… I am not British so recently my parents were visiting from another country. Because of the pandemic, there has been quite a long gap since their last visit. We went for a walk and they commented on a few things and I guess I was seeing things through their eyes.

There seems to be dog poo everywhere - more than ever before. Maybe because everyone got dogs during the pandemic. There is litter everywhere. In my street there are houses that cost a lot of money but many people just dump their rubbish at the front and don’t seem to care. Very few people sweep the front of their houses - the only people who do seem to be older people. The council has no money so is not maintaining anything or doing any cleaning. I could go on…

Is it just me?

Second the chicken bones.

Also people (always men...) spitting on the street. You see it often. And if you don't see it you're stepping around big gloopy, slimy balls of evidence of it.

Spitting on the street is absolutely disgusting but seems to be commonplace.

I worked overlooking Marble Arch for a bit. It stank.

My council seems to have stopped weeding the pavements so it looks awful found here at the moment - I think they must have cut right back on street cleaning services as I haven’t seen a street sweeper in ages. That and the dog shit.

@MuffinsAreJustCakesAtBreakfast

Second the chicken bones.

Also people (always men...) spitting on the street. You see it often. And if you don't see it you're stepping around big gloopy, slimy balls of evidence of it.

Spitting on the street is absolutely disgusting but seems to be commonplace.

Yes! I saw someone emptying their nose onto the pavement the other day - it genuinely shocked me!

I’ve noticed this, also areas I’ve London I once loved becoming a bit of a dump, why is every other shop on Oxford Street an American candy store?

Tbf I don’t think it is just London, I used to live in Brighton and the streets were disgusting.

You should have seen London in the 70s if you think it’s grubby now…

I spend equal amounts of time in London and Paris and to be honest I'm actually always blown away by how clean the former is compared to the latter. I particularly appreciate not getting hit by a constant smell of piss in the tube stations.

Oh another thing I appreciate when comparing the two: you roll into St Pancras and the station is bright, airy, you step outside and it feels quite uplifting. In Paris you step out the station and frankly it feels fucking dodgy, even in the morning.

We recently moved to The Scottish Borders and it does seem a lot cleaner here. Hardly any litter or graffiti. Lots of dogs but rarely see any dog shit. All the public spaces, parks, verges etc. are very well maintained. We moved from the Isle of Wight where all the roadsides were disgusting and thick with rubbish as people threw rubbish out of their car windows. The population density is lower here, I realise, but the urban areas are also cleaner.

I was in London 3 weeks ago and Copenhagen last week. The difference is stark.

We took the Metro in Copenhagen and though it is a lot newer than the tube which will help, we could just about have eaten our dinner off the platforms. The stations and trains were absolutely pristine.

That said, IIRC the average tax in Denmark is 45% and the tax on dirty, pollution causing cars is 150%. That's got to make a difference.

@rrhuth

I agree that things are worse than 15 years ago. My town looks the way I remember it in the early 90s.

The amount Labour spent on councils meant street services were much better, now we've had 10+ years of Tory underfunding and things will look shit.

Plus more dogs.

Plus covid backlogs.

Plus increased graffiti etc caused by reduced youth services etc.

Plus increased vandalism caused by reduced police services.

Plus increased flytipping caused by reduced enforcement.

Etc etc etc. It all comes down to austerity.

This perfectly sums up the problem… the poor state of our communities is the direct result of over 10 years of Tory neglect and cuts to local councils. Local government has lost over half of its funding, so of course street cleaning is going to go, because they’re struggling to fund statutory services like child protection. The Tory’s cut over 10,000 police officers. There’s just no money or insufficient staff to keep our streets clean and safe. And no money to help support struggling families to prevent youths slipping into petty crime. And no money for drug support services. It’s a fucking disgrace.

But people still vote for them

There is more dog crap and rubbish in the street near us.

We are close to a big park (more lockdown dogs and people just too lazy to pick up) and bloody tourists sitting on our front step/benches in the road, and smoking/drinking/laughing gas/Takeaways - dumping the rubbish on the pavement (next to bloody bins). Also cackling loudly in the streets to the small (large) hours.

Our council is actually usually pretty good but they haven’t stepped up cleaning and you can really see the difference.

I visited London recently and went for an amazing walk along the river in the autumn sunshine. As for dog poo, unfortunately that is everywhere, perhaps not so much by the river, but there seems to be alot of very selfish dog owners in this country

London is 2000 years old, it needs a lot of upkeep and local budgets have been drastically cut under the Tories

I don't think it feels grubbier or tired but there are way more homeless people and roving teenagers than when I first moved here, that is down to cuts in services

Britain’s just a bit grim. Most people are too lazy to really care. They care about the flags,
poppies and borders but not about taking genuine and active pride in their surroundings. It’s always someone else’s fault or responsibility.

I've always thought London was grubby, but only certain parts.

This is a UK thing rather than a London thing. Austerity cuts, and de-funding public services, really hit the basics.

@VeniVidiWeeWee

You should've been there in the 80's.

It's what happens when the Tories keep getting voted in.

@silentpool Yes I agree I returned to UK from Melbourne 3 years ago and now in Bath. There is poo everywhere here even thought it’s a UNESCO heritage city. But in Melbourne there were often free doggy waste bag dispensers and so many more poo bins which may be what makes the difference.

Several London boroughs have banned, or are phasing out, glycophosphate spraying on pavements. The increase in weeds has been very visible - my road has had huge growth in six months.

I live abroad but come back to the UK quite often and the rubbish in the uk is horrendous. Along roads, in verges, in cities, it really is bad. Where I live you always see council workers with carts clearing rubbish and sweeping streets. There are local community groups that do the rest . It's very noticeable the difference between here and the UK.

@RainbowTomte

It's not just London. There is more dog shit and more litter everywhere.

Definitely more dog shit in my nice northern town.

It isnt like that everywhere York, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Bristol, are the ones Ive been to recently, and are quite clean.

London is disgusting. How they justify their multi million prices to live in such a shithole is beyond my comprehension.

I think it's not just big cities. I live in a small town in the north west of England and it's supposed to be one of the nicest places to live in the country, house prices also tells you that, but it is absolutely filthy. There's dog poo, broken glass, vomits, discarded food everywhere. I have to zigzag through it walking my dogs and it just makes me feel so sick. I have only been here 8 years, but I don't remember it looking like this when we first moved here, it's in the last couple of years when it's just deteriorated. We do have street cleaners out there picking litter, sweeping up glass etc all day, every day but it's just too much for them too.

It's not being cleaned much. So yes. Also they have seemingly cut the budget for the people who used to weed the pavements etc so it's looking overgrown. I quite like the green shaggy look but it does nothing to make London look smart/ thriving/ levelling up, which we sort of need at the moment given we've left the large trading bloc next door.