To think a lot of the Uk looks like a state

[Novembermummy88]

Not sure if I am being dramatic or if years of austerity are really starting to show…? Lately I’ve really started to notice how filthy, run down and falling apart everywhere looks! I live in a town in the south east on the borders of the M25. Every where there are gapping pot holes (can hardly avoid the volume there are now and genuinely concerned I will lose a wheel at some point!), broken lamp posts, the volume of litter / filth on the roads seems very high and can’t remember the last time I saw a road sweeper, and things like pathways are a state, road markings worn out, SO many closed/dilapidated shops….the town just looks awful as do many of the nearby towns! Is it just the South East looking like this? Aibu?! Or have I watched too much Selling Sunsets and setting my expectations too high…???

Unemployment is a shit-show in Spain. It is not a utopia.

horseyhorsey17 · Today 12:06
Emotionalstorm · Today 12:01
This has nothing to do with our government and everything to do with messy filthy people .

“Don't be silly. The mess is because underfunded councils have drastically cut bin emptying services - plus closing recycling centres round here - and the rubbish is now spilling out into the streets, parks, rivers etc. Growing population + fewer bin collections = rubbish everywhere”

Ah, horseyhorsey, why let facts get in the way of a good old Tory moan about lowlifes? 🤣

Yeh I was going to say the pp doesn’t mention unemployment rates, especially youth unemployment

Oh, it's all the above. Of course it's austerity though. The decline in the town over the last 10 years - more homeless and drug users, children's centres all closed, rubbish everywhere, roads more pot hole than surface, to name but a few issues - has been shocking. It could be fixed by a competent council - which we don't have under the current Conservative incumbent - and investment, and won't be until those things happen. Which is why we need a Labour government stat.

I honestly think we all need to let our councils and MPs know we hate the litter problem and we want it sorting. It feels like they think we don’t care when most of us do.

@Emotionalstorm That is utter stupidity. Look at how councils are being chronically underfunded. That’s the reason for the issues, not bad management.

The idiots at my local Conservative run council also started charging people to use the tip to dump household items - with an entirely predictable explosion in fly tipping.

They know we all care, the government won't give councils the money to sort it out.

Some what agree, new neighbours in my flat are horrifyingly trashy leaving all sort of rubbish wherever they go and then blame it on other neighbours.

I complained and complained to the building management, no response. What I ended up doing was writing a letter and posting it to them(I think they thought it was from the the management company. They have since stopped which is a win).

@horseyhorsey17 No they don’t. It’s not high on the political agenda because it’s not talked about enough.

The litter and fly tipping absolutely is down scruffy, selfish individuals. Every single crisp packet,can ,fast food carton adds to the blight.What is the excuse for throwing anything out of a car.Nearly all journeys end at work,home,shopping centres and all have bins.True our bin is emptied fortnightly now rather than weekly but I still bring my rubbish home.I need a permit to go to the tip. There's a lot wrong in the the moment.And I agree about the state of roads.But why should cash strapped councils have to clean up litter on such a vast scale.Every verge round here is choked with small bits of litter.That is down to individuals.

I think this all the time. I’m desperate to move but there are not many towns that don’t look depressing or aren’t suffering from a lack of investment. I feel really happy when I go to pretty villages/towns but they’re so far and few between and I’m not rich so I don’t think I’ll ever be able to afford the kind of lovely house in a lovely town or village that I desperately want.

i also think people have lost a sense of pride, organisation and care. Some of it is our culture changing to become more lazy and self focused/less sense of community but a lot of it is this modern world that doesn’t care about longevity. I look at videos of the USA and it looks so ugly and grey to me. I’m really growing to feel out of place in the modern world. I like authenticity, beauty and solid craftsmanship (eg beautiful buildings that have lasted hundreds of years and are charming and beautiful) not grey buildings and new builds with no soul.

it just makes me so sad.

They do. My BF is a councillor. She gets endless reports of littering and fly tipping. Of course councils know that people feel strongly about litter. It's not talked about by the government because they don't think it's their problem or care.

We do seem to have a huge litter problem though. Locally it got so much worse once they stopped doing weekly collections, also then why stopped things like three free bulky items. The tip doesn’t accept waste if it thinks it’s commercial ok cool, but people fixing up their own houses have been turned away because their waste might be commercial because they happened to install a new window or door it’s stupid. I remember as a child once every 4 months ish we would have a massive skip like static caravan sized skip dropped off down the street for everyone to use. Worked great not just for rubbish rubbish but ended up like a swap shop too for bikes for children sizing up and garden play equipment. Doesn’t happen anymore.

Also big issues with slum landlords and when their tenants leave just slinging out all the furniture into the street to rot. Think our city was actually on every episode of slum landlords.

It can be like trying to polish a turd if your the one house that actually gives a crap among a street of those that don’t.

I think it probably depends where in the UK you are @horseyhorsey17 I imagine Home Counties types are always complaining but countrywide litter is not on the agenda.

Walk along any pavement. The litter is always the same... Coke can, redbull can, costa cup, fast food box, walkers packet.

Just put a 5p tax on all these products ringfenced for street cleaning and bins.

Actually enforce fines for littering.
Make going to the tip free again.
Force companies to produce properly recyable packaging.

If we had a government that cared at all they could go some way to fixing this with minimal effort. Instead they are too busy allowing companies to pump shit and pfas chemicals into our rivers and seas.

You forgot those horrible vape pens that you can’t reuse.

I don't have time to read the whole thread but I agree with the OP, I moved from a south-east commuter town (maybe the same one!) two years ago and went back for the first time in a while last week. The roads were truly dreadful, to the extent that I seriously thought I had burst my tyre or damaged the car a couple of times. The town centre was a mess and the shopping centre had about 12 people in the entire place, soooo many empty units and was so gloomy due to the lack of lighting from all the empty shops and the fact that the centre lighting seems to have been turned down as well, presumably a cost-saving measure.

Do you mean laughing gas canisters? Apologies if being odd, but I've had a couple of people ask me what they are!

And shit’s being pumped into our seas because… wait for it… it’s cheaper to do than invest in/repair the infrastructure required to deal with it.

Relaxing regulations is more shareholder friendly than actual investment.

Being somewhat disingenuous there. All political commentators reckon the 2019 GE was about getting Brexit done. You're telling me that the red wall folk in left behind areas were happy with tory rule and they voted for more of the same tory mismanagement ? Brexit was a vote against the establishment elites in Westminster, right and left, who had neglected those areas for decades not an endorsement of the tories. Johnson wasn't seen per se as tory elite just a jovial 'man of the people' saying what people wanted to hear about levelling up.

YANBU

I live near Belfast, Northern Ireland and the place has turned into a dump.

I wouldn't be in the city centre often, but had to go in the other day. Most shops are closed or boarded up, the roads are in awful condition. Rubbish lying everywhere, bins overflow, rats walking the pavements. Bus stops being smashed up and not even repaired. More homeless people than there was a decade ago, on the streets and doorways when we have at least 3 main hotels in the city accommodating illegal immigrants. My LO complained the whole time about the smell - I assume it was sewage.

Outside of city centre is the same. Rubbish everywhere, potholes galore and the only restoration that seems to be happening is new build houses or renovating hotels. Roads aren't fixed all year until February/March time when the budget is coming to an end, so every road you travel on is a nightmare.

Those too actually but no those elf bar? Type vapes. So many puffs and then you have to buy a new one. I see loads chucked into bushes.

Still doesn’t change the outcome. Labour lost, the biggest defeat since 1930s or thereabouts, no matter which way you dress it up.

Johnson got their votes and Corbyn failed to.

Exactly this.