My town has really changed

[CatbellsOnTheSeashore]

In a confusing and not very pleasant way.

It was gradually changing for the worse before covid, but the pandemic seemed to accelerate it, and I am wondering if anyone else has noticed anything like this.

It became more insular whilst more populated, the population increased quite a bit over the past 5 yrs. More and more dereliction, low council maintenance and an influx of troubled people housed around the town centre, which is now a no-go zone. Areas surrounding have steadily grown worse also, as it seems to be spilling out.

What does feel really different is that there are now lots of groups of men, hanging around drinking or sat on pavements together (not begging). Drugs took over the local nature paths and canal walks so now there are large groups of people out of their heads lying on old sofas at the locks, it's really grim. Women who used to cycle and run in these areas have more or less moved elsewhere or stopped.

More and more standard sized houses in low to middle income areas are becoming HMO's, yet with poor refuse organisation and not enough parking. I'm not exaggerating when I say there are literally trails of dog shit in the streets in many areas, too, which pretty much hangs in the air and the place stinks. That, and skunk.

We live in a decent part of town but it is coming closer, and I only have that perk due to inheriting my parents bungalow. More and more people are moving out.

On a walk to Sainsbury's yesterday two guys were holding onto a sign pole hovering over a bin. As I passed by one of them vomited into the bin and then spat/gobbed an inch from my feet - he didn't notice me particularly, but it was quite sudden or I'd have given them a wide berth.
This isn't unusual now.

I know people usually blame the cost of living and covid, etc, but this was definitely on the rise before. There is far more noise pollution as more buildings go up, usually industrial, and the roads are a nightmare. Infrastructure for actual people is decreasing.
That said, I don't think most of these people were thriving before, so it isn't a sudden change. It is as if a new kind of culture is growing, that doesn't care a damn about anything. Everything is vandalised or shat on. More and more windows are broken in properties close to the town centre, and I doubt most of these people were thriving before the pandemic hit.

Is this bad luck or is anything like it happening elsewhere?
We are definitely looking to move away.

I live in a very diverse area and have heard people complain that it is hard to register at a GP because you have to produce so many documents to prove your right to live in the UK and proof of where you are living. It may be different in areas with virtually no migrants though.

People voted for Brexit because they were too thick to realise that Asia, Africa and the Middle East aren't in Europe so wouldn't affect immigration from these places.

Instead they managed to limit the largely Christian and Catholic white Eastern Europeans coming in

What you describe OP is a manifestation of the general income decline and cuts to council funding. The UK in some areas is slowly turning into a dystopian wasteland, especially northern towns. Oldham, Rochdale, Blackburn, Burnley are very similar. Drug use and crime are on the rise, not as many people have a sense of pride for where they live so things are decaying rather rapidly, plus you have segregated communities which come with other issues such as dirty streets and unkept shop fronts.

I feel for the young children being raised in these first world slums, it’s very depressing to see towns declining so badly.

A lot of ex-mining/mill towns should probably have been progressively closed down and rewilded years ago, with people given financial help to relocate and a lot of homebuilding in expanding areas (like the Oxford-Cambridge arc).

Trying to suggest this in the UK is very hard though; there is a strong attitude in the modern UK that once an area has been settled, that's it - it has to be preserved in amber pretty much forever. There is a dislike of pulling down old housing stock, so once decline has set in, welfare recipients often end up moving to these areas (indeed, sometimes nimby councils in the south who don't want to build anything deliberately send their welfare recipients to decaying northern towns). Inevitably, the places spiral.

Durham made attempts to try and demolish old pit villages and relocate the residents decades ago, but even in the 60s there was huge resistence to this.

Wow!

We have recently been to the SE coast and waiting at bus stops we were even warned by people before we got there that druggies are a big issue. In the towns there were a lot of empty shops. Pre covid there were not many empty shops .I agree there is a huge decline. I don't know what the answer is either.

The spitting is probably drug related (khet chewing maybe, East Bristol has an issue with this)

Sorry, but I don't live in Britain and honestly, reading this thread makes me extremely glad that I don't. Yes, much of the world is going through bad times at present, and things are turning to shit, but I've never seen anything here like some of the descriptions on this thread. I just hope that we aren't headed this way in years to come.

Nobody voted to bring in the Global South. They just voted with the only means their ‘betters’ gave them.

But Boris Johnson et al. never believed in Brexit and pursued the same agenda with third world immigrants.

Total betrayal. You could have had very little immigration and forced the working class wages to increase instead.

Honestly it is surprising how little British people are paid, in all income brackets. It’s actually worse the higher up you go! I was surprised to hear that UK is equivalent to fucking Alabama—but then when I traveled outside London I started to understand a little bit better ….

I think the country is declining and the rate of decline is gathering speed, for all the many reasons people have identified.

The government spends on average 17k per person in the UK.

If an immigrant is earning 30k then they pay 5k national insurance and income tax into the system. 72% of work related Visas were issued for low paid jobs and 54% of those were for jobs earning less than half the average salary. Essentially those people need subsidising through the taxation system.

We have also created a situation where parents on the lowest income levels are having twice as many children as those with the highest income levels. Proportionally 12.7% of births in the UK to 7.7%. Essentially those most likely to be on benefits and employed are having twice as many children. Benefits and Housing Benefit cost more than the NHS and more than pensions. Two thirds of council expenditure in some areas goes on children and adult social services - not all of this is spent on low income households but not poverty is linked to many issues which require social care intervention.

Improving social mobility is essential and is not cheap. But it's a stretch for the government to have subsidise so many people who don't pay into the system or who pay too little in.

Meant to say above poverty is linked to many social care issues.

You have to be talking about Wigan. I 100% agree, it's become awful! Stabbings in the town centre on busy Saturday mornings, the druggies that congregate outside B&M.. I actually actively avoid the town centre (not that there's much left there to go for) because of how unsafe it's beginning to feel.

Lmao, I'm in one of those areas too. It's actually not bad to live there disregarding the drug dealers two doors up. I just hate heading into town now, always a drama going on.

Why on earth would you assume the OP is exaggerating ?

There are plenty of areas like this in the UK. My nearest city has become an absolute drug riddled nightmare in the last ten years. I believe OP in every respect.

This. I am old and so have seen far better times in this country and the slide is gathering pace without question.

I think they are struggling to recruit candidates with enough basic skills in literacy and English language. The data on immigaration points to a negative contribution to the public purse. This decline of unskilled migrants finding work will continue to decline with the current economic policy of increased tax burden to the private sector. The UK is not seen as a business friendly environment for companies to invest here currently. We need manuafactorimg to return to provide the jobs for all demographics within the working class.

A lot more homeless, drug addicted beggars where I live in London since Covid. I would say more general crime as well. Drug dealing is so obvious I don’t know how they get away with it. I won’t walk back home later than around 9.30pm now, have to spend more on taxis.

Austerity has definitely depleted the police and undermined their work. In the 2010s there were local officers and CSOs who worked in specific areas, went into schools, knew the families. In austerity, the money for those workers was cut and all that social work and knowledge was lost. Successful policing has to have a preventative element and that starts in the communities, with kids.

I imagine a lot of outreach programmes for drug and alcohol support, along with the Sure Start centres, all got cut too. (My local Sure Start offered groups for Young and Pregnant, health visitor clinics, foundation level education, mum and baby groups… it all went and nothing took its place.)

Brexit has made everything worse and since covid people don’t seem to have the same attitude to community and society- it’s really very individualistic now.

Our town has gone downhill, deteriorated aswell, no investment from council, shops are charity shops and vape, bank closed. More troubled people into housing, doctors and schools overwhelmed so now young families have to go to schools and doctors in neighbouring towns. All a bit sad really.

We don't do religion now (the white community) so the basic commandments no longer seem to apply. So that is a basic understanding that has gone.
We are manipulated by drug and corruption gangs - mainly foreign - I lived near a port many years ago - apparently drugs were brought in on fishing boats or other boats. After a year or two the supply of cocaine mysteriously stopped but Oh, here you go guys - they'd managed to get some heroin, so herion became the norm.
When I was young men took up apprenticeships and played in the local footie team. Somehow now the sport opportunity is much more limited and paying someone a minimum wage, and with the cost of insurance to cover all risks, means apprentices are expensive - why would you pay for that. Apprenticeships lasted years then. Too expensive now. All our great health and safety rules have downsides.

AI is coming down the line - much fewer jobs - I think sport would be a saving grace for teenagers. more of it in and after school. And it's probably one of the cheapest options.

When I was first married I remember people regularly cleaning the pavements outside their houses, shopkeepers did too, pavements were clean. It amazes me that you go past half million pound houses and they can't pick up litter from their front garden or a few weeds, There should be a compulsion on owners and and landlords to keep the visible part of their garden tidy.

No one is saying people aren’t disturbed by loud excessive noise. That is5)3 whole point of what they’re doing. To get attention, because no one is giving them any.

We have to look at what is happening in this country. We need to bring people together, we need to stand firm with British culture. If you think toxic masculinity is bad now we need to seriously address the question of open immigration of men who think women aren’t equal. Unless they can prove the subscribe to that concept by ditching any ideology that does not agree with that basic idea they should be refused entry or taken to a third safe country. Any ideology that does not subscribe to that should be outlawed as a hate group.

The real problem is that you tolerate the intolerable.

Someone causing a noise disturbance? Give them a warning and jail them the second time.

People will raise themselves to higher standards or drop to lower standards (and then some).

You used to be able to socially enforce these standards when you were a homogeneous country. That’s over now, and your standards are now seen as unimportant and actually a bit of a joke.

My town has lost its identity.

now full of vapes shops, foreign barbers, american candy, mobile shops, chinese nail bars and stinks of weed. Its ugly. Ruined by people who have migrated in and zero regards to the area. And stinks of weed at lunchtimes from the flats above these establishments.

its no coincidence

I was in the US over Independence Day last year. The sense of pride for their country coming from everyone in the events I went to over that day was unlike anything we have here these days. Even as a foreigner to their country I felt caught up in it.

We need to be reminded of our country’s history and achievements and regain a sense of pride but everything here feels like we are trying to be so careful not to offend people from other cultures that we can’t experience our own.