To feel so sad about what happened to our town?

[AbstractThought]

I wasn't born here, DH was, and I have seen it discussed on MN in the past. I am aware that many towns across the UK are in a similar situation, so this probably isn't anything special, but since most people talk about shop closures I wanted to look at it from a different angle.

In the past decade we have a ton more issues in the town than previously, often relating to homelessness and addiction, and the town centre, what's left of it, has become completely over run by these problems with groups of people fighting and street drinking. A lot of these people are in extreme difficulty, whether mental health related and/or drug issues. Crime shot through the roof, and even about 8 streets away from this it spills outwards to us in what was once a fairly quiet place to live.
We now have a constant stream of siren noise, day and night, helicopters are daily and whilst we personally haven't felt in any actual danger there is a horrible sense of decay and hopelessness. Just nipping to the closest supermarket is depressing, there are a lot of neglected animals and people having meltdowns in the streets.

It is how it changed so quickly though. I can't get my head around where it all started or why. I am aware of the contribution of politics, covid, all of that stuff, but it seems so incredibly extreme. The siren noise is the worst, it is piercing and never seems to end. This also seemed to explode around the same time as the area went downhill. Probably a mix of police and emergency vehicles. It is difficult to work or relax at home and if you are a light sleeper it can have an impact there too.

What I am wondering is if this is commonplace now, in what was once a thriving town? It is the sheer amount of troubled people which seems to have escalated the most, and I can't get my head around how this has evolved, in such a short space of time. It is like they weren't here, then suddenly appeared, it is difficult to describe it. Obviously the council can't do a great deal to help and I have no idea what the answer is. The most upsetting thing is that a lot of these people are so messed up that they can barely talk in a way that is decipherable. This includes children, and there is a growing amount of people who have barely any teeth. This is a fucking severe problem and I have no idea what will help it. We have mucked in with a few local charities but it barely scratches the surface in my opinion.
We are moving due to work relocation soon, so whilst it may not be 'our' problem after we have gone, this isn't the point. I am just so sorry that it has come to this, in likely even more places than just here. WTF happened??

I think that a lot of towns are going through similar, OP.

I live a few miles from the south coast, and the deprivation in our coastal towns has grown at an alarming rate over the 30-ish years I've lived here. Homelessness and addiction appear to be rife, mental health services are broken, and the gap between rich and poor is getting ever wider.

A couple of the towns had shiny new shopping centres built in the 90s and noughties, they're now full of empty units. The parks are neglected, the streets are filthy and they're just depressing.

Our city center has gone a bit like this as much as sad as that is to say. I moved here for Uni in 2011 and there were bad parts and better parts like any other city, but it never felt dodgy or unsafe. I don't regularly visit the city center anymore as I don't really enjoy shopping and there isn't a lot to do with a toddler. There was an event at the weekend which DPs hobby group were doing something at so we went along, mainly all happening around the edge of the main centre. Left DP to do his thing so I could go to a shop to grab some bits with our toddler. Walking through the nicer part of town was fine, until I hit the main part. I was shocked at how dirty it was, how many dodgy looking folk were around, endless amounts of deliveroo drivers taking up benches smoking and shouting at each other, so many homeless people, preachers getting aggressive with people, blokes selling stuff out of suitcases from empty shop doorways with megaphones, clearly off their face junkies. I had to get cash out and I felt actually scared. I didn't stay in that part for long. It's a shame as it used to be generally ok, but the difference between the "nicer" part and the main part was stark!!

Where I live we had some.problems because drug addicts from cities were relocated here to get them away from their network. Guess what? They made their own one here! Cue deals being done out of their accommodation too floor, dropping down to the street.
It's not as bad as some places and seems they've stopped this particular council initiative.
A good influx of European workers has improved the area now, mixed it up a bit from.just the yokels who have lived here for generations. Encouraged growth, new shops etc.
Online shopping and covid has shut down quite a few businesses however. We mostly seem able to support hairdressers and cafes!

I’m guessing it’s the same town I live in. Seen it discussed lots on here too. It’s shit. I hate living here. I dream of winning some money and moving. Even without the problems there’s bugger all here now. No shops/no jobs, it’s crap. It’s also the reason I’ve always had to commute to cities as there’s sod all locally.

No idea what the answer is. It feels like people just don’t care anymore. It was never an amazing place but there were some decent companies that employed a lot of locals and trained them in a trade. The town centre had shops too, as a teen my friends and I could spend a Saturday afternoon there. Barely anything to merit an hours visit now. There’s one specific place I go to, as it’s the only one in my general area, otherwise I’d never visit the centre at all.

Same here. Pretty seaside town, now it’s full of vape shops, phone screen repair places, dog shit and oddballs hanging around shouting abuse at people walking past. Rubbish everywhere because for some reason the council have boarded up the bins (why???!) and the general decay you talk about. Really sad.

I was brought up near Kendal in the north and have often used it as a sort of 'test town' to see if it starts to fall apart at a similar rate. As a small market town in a touristy area it has previously managed quite well, with only a few big box stores gaining a foothold over the years. However, the last time I visited family there for two weeks in Feb, I am beginning to notice shop closures, slowly, and the one arcade seems to have closed. Most people there are irritated by the take over from airb&b's at this point, though I can definitely feel the cracks forming with way more aggressive street behaviour. Is everything doomed to this outside of very wealthy spots?

Halifax? The market used to be bustling when I worked there a good few years ago now. I was shocked when I went back recently. And the restaurants in the Piece Hall were completely dead - this was on a Friday tea time.

is this Southport? we were shocked ! visiting after a few years, the dereliction,
in the once proud and well kept town, now there are doorway dwellers, shuttered shops, awful

You could be describing my home town. It was always a dive but imo three things have had a massive impact. Out of town shopping like Bluewater and lakeside. London rent cap resulting in a huge influx of Londers resulting in developers buying and converting every house that hits the market into bedsits. Cost of living crisis.

If I ever did want pop to the shops ( if I still lived there) unless I wanted something in Primark I wouldn't set foot in the town. If I wasn't born and bred local I'd not feel safe for a start but that's lost its benefit as I don't feel like it's my home town, I don't recognise it. It's like a shity London suburb from the 90s, like Depford used to be before it was developed.

Imagine if your town is all victorian terraced houses and slowly all around you there's ten families / couples to each three bed victorian terrace. It turns towns into hubs for people that can only aspire to bedsit living.

Where I live now its expensive and posh as just as close to London but on the other side. We have a influx of professional beggers driven in via vans every day. I had one smart clean man chase up to me asking for cash. Unfortunately that's why I prefer shopping centres. No aggressive beggers in Bluewater for example. People with cash don't want to be having a that experience. The worse it gets, the more it drives the money away. If I was back in Kent, I'd be shopping at Bluewater too dispite the drive being ten times longer.

@Fallenangelofthenorth yes Halifax

Yes, you are describing my city centre, it's dreadful. We are in the SW but I think we have more in common with Northern towns who have had their industry decimated and nothing to replace it. I can't believe we always return a Tory MP! Although I am not sure with globalisation and technology that anybody can sort this.

Generations of people on benefits, when you do not need to work then some don’t. Safety net has been allowed to be abused. Same with education and speaking properly, it is not valued because if you do not need to, why bother, you are surrounded by ppl same as you and you are fed and sheltered.

Brawlers used to go to war and die or people would die of diseases, now they do not. The world population has doubled since the 1970s.

Zero tolerance for crime and drugs would solve it but the bleeding heart brigade would be all over it, like the recent thread about how some poor 18 yr old MN dd had to deal with them in the toilets at Greggs.

Sympathy for those that fall between the cracks is fine, but it doesn’t get the job done. Families should look after their struggling young person, a lot can be helped by a caring family with strong discipline, expectations and standards.

I was telling my son the other day that I used to work in a youth club. He said, "what's a youth club?". Isn't that sad? They've all closed around here. We're fortunate and can afford activities etc.. for our kids. I think it has a lot to do with government policy and budgets. I work in criminal justice. Years ago prison leavers had priority when released so they could go straight into a hostel. That is not the case any more, hence the greater visibility of street homeless people. It is depressing and I worry when my kids want to go in to town.

Generations of people on benefits, when you do not need to work then some don’t. Safety net has been allowed to be abused.

Sadly gov intervention/reforms tended to punish those most likely in dire need of their benefits (disabled, etc). It's been a shit show all the way.

I hope it isn't Southport! My aunt lives there and I recently sent her an M&S card for her birthday

We lived in the outskirts of a market town. Opposite us was an open field with a small river and a footpath and trees , it was a nice place to live.
Then a pizza place opened up ( Dominoes ) and we had delivery drivers and mopeds up and down the road using it as a cut through. We moved.

Hahaha where? I'm in stapleford sw notts.

I live in a nice area but not far from a really horrible one. It's definitely gone downhill but has always been known as a troubled area.

14 years of the tories in power has resulted in a complete erosion of most social services, which leads to scenarios like the one you’re describing.

I think that when a town starts to decline, rents can go down, landlords less choosy about who they rent to, charities and local authorities can rent houses for people in need of supported accommodation, so you can end up with a lot of people who are addicts/suffering from mental health issues in the same area, kids feel they can engage in anti-social behaviour, so littering, fighting, vandalism rates rise, and people avoid the area.

I see it in an area of my city, which I'm sometimes in for work, lots of homeless hostels there, real vicious circle.

My South coast University town is exactly the same. Town centre void of shopping, stabbings on a regular basis, rents sky high so lots of HMOs. It's shit and getting worse.

It's like that famous quote "How did you go bankrupt? Slowly at first and then all at once.'

The state of Britain today has been a long time in the making. We've had neo liberal economics since 1979 and this is the end result. Labour didn't reverse any of the bullshit Thatcher gave us and ended up being seat warmers for Cameron and Osborne to swan back in and crack on. The country deserves so much better than what we've had for such a long time. It's truly tragic how mismanaged we've been.

This is what poverty has looked like in the UK for such a long time though, it’s just poverty is everywhere now.

Our town centre is awful although fortunately I don't have to venture there often. People off their heads on spice and other kicking off. Young men of a certain culture speeding around in massive cars, racing , intimidating other drivers etc or gathering at out of town supermarket car parks to race cars around. Constant motorbikes going really fast even at 2/3 am that can be heard all night. My workplace is not far from the town centre and we are down a little lane. The council have had to install security gates to seal off the lane at night now as it was being used for prostitution with used condoms and drug paraphernalia scattered around. Fortunately the suburb we live in is not too bad, the smell of dope is everywhere and lots of those laughing gas cannisters always scattered around but not too much trouble generally.

It's not really a "recent" thing everywhere though. I lived in a seaside town that rapidly descending into being a cesspit like you describe in the 90s. Obviously, like many others, it lost the traditional holidaymaker market to the Med, but the stupid council decided to "help" fill the empty boarding houses and small hotels by encouraging (even advertising for) "undesirables" such as newly released prisoners to move there and encouraged the boarding house owners to convert them into bedsits. Very quickly there were huge amounts of anti social behaviour, open drug dealing, thefts, robberies, drunkenness, vandalism, etc. Inevitable really. The town centre which used to have chain stores like M&S, Woolworths, Littlewoods, Tesco, etc etc is now mostly boarded up along with the usual mixture of betting shops, tattoo parlours, money laundering hair and beauty salons that never have any customers, etc etc. That was all in the 90s and it's just stagnated ever since.

Same with lots of the old Lancashire/Yorkshire ex mill towns which are also crime ridden and have mostly lost all their decent shops. Again, nothing particularly new, easily been happening the last 20-30 years.

The difference now is that many of the towns and cities that previously avoided the degradation are now suffering it themselves, so the people who previously thought they were living in ok places are now finding themselves also living in hell hole crime ridden towns too! It's just been a gradual decline for decades which has taken a little while longer to impact on the more well-off towns and cities.