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…???

I'd say you get what you pay for, but it's really a case of you get what you voted for.......tory austerity for over a decade with no long term plans. Brexit to leave the largest and closest trading partner so that ' England' can be great again and manage its own affairs. You have what you voted for.

A cyclone has nothing whatsoever to do with what the OP is discussing, and it was only a national state of emergency because it is easier to deal with things that way - it doesn't mean the whole country was affected, far from it.

NorseKiwi didn't say Auckland was a paradise, and of course they have crime, but once again that has nothing to do with what the OP is complaining of. Violent crime, in most cases, involves people who are known to each other - we don't walk around in fear that someone is going to attack us for no reason.

I live in NZ and sent a friend in the UK a photo of our town's Christmas tree. In her reply she didn't mention the tree, but instead remarked on how clean the street appeared to be, which I found strange because it looks like all the other streets here. The council staff are always working on the gardens, in the parks, tidying the streets, which it appears isn't happening in some parts of the UK.

I didn't vote for this.

I'm in NI. No one on NI voted Conservative. We voted Remain. This shitshow is on English voters. Perhaps they need a referendum on independence.

Totally agree. I moved to Europe 10 years ago, recently drove back for the first time in four years and was shocked at the state of everything. Roads in very poor condition with many pot holes even on major roads, dirty road signs, filthy cars being driven and houses looking very tired and in need of repair. Admittedly winter does make everything look drab but it just felt like people had lost pride of their homes and country. It really saddened me, talking south East area so not sure about the rest of the country.

Much as I want to blame governments and local councils for most of this. The vast majority of littering is the fault of the general population. There is no need to litter or dump things and it’s disgusting.

We shouldn’t need to have to use tax payers money to sweep every street to eliminate the issue. It would never have been possible for the councils to get everywhere anyway. I think people shouldn’t be littering and are littering more, but businesses and individuals who possibly who have used to take more pride in their area now leave it for someone else and it never gets sorted out.

We regularly litter pick our road but I have noticed how some of the big shops have so much litter blowing around their grounds all the time. I also wonder whether Mac Donald’s who used to do more litter picks have stopped as where I work has so much fast food wrapper dumped around the place it’s vile.

Much as I want to blame governments and local councils for most of this. The vast majority of littering is the fault of the general population. There is no need to litter or dump things and it’s disgusting.

I agree. People don't care. And, at the risk of sounding like my parents, some of the younger people have appalling attitudes. It's not just litter, it's vandalism, making everyone listen to their loud music on trains, not offering their seats to people more in need. It's not everyone, some of my kids' teenage friends are lovely but I think there's been a real shift in attitude and general disrespect rather than trying to be a good citizen.

The challenge is that there isn't lots of public money available to magically fix everything. We need to do our part and foster a sense of looking after our neighbourhood, not dropping litter, leaving dog poo (Luton, I'm looking at you) and dumping wardrobes.

we don't walk around in fear that someone is going to attack us for no reason

tbf I don’t either.

We need to get the tories out and then see what labour do with their five years. If you can see demonstrable consistent positive change, which you will, then what does it matter if you “like” them? Its not about liking them, its about whether they will make things better.

Tories never make things better because of their underpinning ideology. Which has been proven over the last 13 years to make absolutely everything worse.

We need to get the tories out and then see what labour do with their five years

Unfortunately five years will only be long enough to scratch the surface of undoing all the damage.

Yanbu. I live in a posh area and even that looks gross. When we had a week of thick ice the council did absolutely no clearing or gritting around DC school, it was utterly hazardous and I heard of 8 people who broke bones. The potholes are huge and everywhere, and there are virtually no road markings - I saw a smash up of cars recently on a junction that has long lost a crucial "give way" line.

I have family further north and as a PP said, many areas of the north have been like that for years but now to me look like something out of a dystopian novel.

Make no mistake, this is the Tories' handiwork.

Most of the independent shops and cafes in my town now seem to be owned and run by people who weren't born and bread in the UK- people with gumption to give something a go and work really hard at it. It seems immigrants are keeping my town center going when it would otherwise be a ghost town with nothing but a WH Smith's and a Savers.

Brighton is an ill kempt slum. It's covered in taggs and graffiti. The public toilets having been run down are now closed. The street furniture is left to rot along with the cast iron Victorian terraces. Brighton excels in the national pot hole competition. Refuse collection is hit or miss. The Council outsources the care of parks to heroic volunteers. Street cleaning is pathetic. God knows what visitors from overseas make of it.The sea is always great and the Downs are lovely so do pop down for a day.😉

Brighton gives me the creeps for some reason. I could never take to it. Never understood the fuss. You have confirmed this.

I went to YORK last week and it looks very tatty and run down . It's a major tourist town so I don't understand why they are not spending money to keep it attractive !!

I read the news today, oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall
I'd love to turn you on

Brighton’s a funny one. It was incredibly seedy and down at heel in the 1950s and 60s. It sorted its act out to become London on Sea by the turn of the century and now it seems to be regressing again.

@artsperson the way the council have left those terraces to rot is an absolute disgrace. The whole section after the pier to the eyesore of a Marina is a blight.

I agree, if it were still freedom to go and live in Europe I'd be gone by now. I travel to eastern Europe a few times a year and each time I go I see new investment in roads, factories, houses and all to the latest standard. Things work there. Thanks to all who voted for Brexit, I hope this is what you wanted.

I rarely go to Brighton these days, even though it's my nearest big town.

I utterly agree with you about the graffiti and litter, but what bothers me more is the number of people wandering about totally pissed or off their heads in some other way and the heartbreaking number of homeless people.

Three or 4 years ago, I drove into Brighton along the seafront from the east one morning, and was shocked by the amount of rubbish in the doorway of one of the big restaurants near the pier. I drove back half an hour later, and there was a lot of movement and people in the same doorway, and I was shocked when I realised that what had looked like a load of rubbish was actually homeless people, bedded down for the night, with bin liners over their bedding to keep the water out. It actually brought tears to my eyes. And all within a stone's throw of £1m flats.

Brighton these days really sums up "private affluence and public squalour".

In Scotland. We didn't vote for this either. 😏.

ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/CSI-Brexit-4-People%E2%80%99s-Stated-Reasons-for-Voting-Leave.pdf

This makes for interesting reading about why people voted Leave.

You are not being unreasonble. I noticed it over a decade ago when the councils started selling off public loos to the highest bidder. Did they think that humans had evolved not to need a public restroom for their convenience? We have become very Americanised where everything is about the bottom line. No civic pride like there used to be. I live in a beautiful village and even that is full of pot holes and rusty lamposts. The government and the councils just don't have the time to care about this stuff anymore. Bill Bryson once said that he thought he had come to England on the day of a "Litter Festival". Says it all.

But on the other hand I going out the other night I was surprised at how busy everywhere was. Restaurants full to the brim. Also the amount of people travelling overseas for holidays. We have just been to St Lucia but my father in law left us some cash. Obviously not everyone is skint.

I guess most of the expats are self funding.

Portugal can't wait to invite our rich pensioners offering great tax incentives. I know a few taking them up on the offer.

More tax lost to the UK.

Yes I'll probably be called a far-right extremist but there's quite a big difference between someone who gets a residence visa on the basis of meeting a stringent income criteria, probably has private health insurance etc and someone who arrives without invitation and requires state funding to meet all of their needs.
This goes for any country though.