UK city so dirty

[Ontobetterthings]

Just come back from my holiday abroad. Had a city break. It was lovely, beautiful buildings. Everything was so clean.

Was just driving home (midlands city). Everything looks do run down, dirty and it's just so depressing 😞

I can assure you that not everywhere is like your city. I live in North Yorkshire and it's clean & tidy. With beautiful countryside - we're on the edge of an AONB

When I stayed in brussels with my dog for a few days I couldn’t believe how much dog poo was on the pavements. No-one picked it up. Disgusting

Nailed it

DH is from Vancouver and whenever we visit there the UK looks filthy for a bit. Parts are very run down looking now. But it's true much of the world is far worse. The light in the UK, versus med or tropical sun, makes dirt and dinginess look worse than it is sometimes.

The funds local authorities receive for education, social care etc are all ring fenced. The funds for libraries, waste collection, street cleaning are not. Often social care costs more than the government provide the council (based on specific funding formulas) so councils effectively subsidise these services with non ring fenced funds.

It would make more sense for social care to be integrated into the NHS and councils to focus on other activities. The vast majority of the budget is social care for most councils (approximately 50%).

Rather than vast majority perhaps other words would have made more sense but basically the biggest spending council departments relate to social care.

no way, cities are so much cleaner than they were 30 years ago! I'm not going to name them coz the argument will never end but I'm thinking north and south major areas I did and do visit, loads cleaner and tidier. I take it you want higher taxes pmsl?

Oh OP, do you think people would pay to visit your holiday destination if it was scruffy and grim? Of course not, in exactly the same way as foreigners wouldn’t visit the Cotswolds if it looked like the worst parts of Bradford.

we went to Sicily in the summer, stayed in Taormina, beautiful Italian village overlooking clear waters in the sunshine. Spent the day in Catania just wandering the city and went a bit off track. Just five minutes walk out of the city the streets were filthy, covered in graffiti, groups of very dodgy looking men hanging around and prostitutes sat outside little stone houses on chairs waiting for business.

It’s the same the world over, at least where I’ve visited including the far east, US, Australia and most of Europe. Good and bad, beautiful and grim.