Is our town a shithole..

[FroggletTowers]

Or is this happening anywhere else?

I have been discussing this with friends, family and colleagues recently so won't name our town for privacy reasons, but it is a regular, large town in England, UK.
Nothing particularly special or awful about it, previously.

Since the pandemic, the entire vibe has changed. Almost unrecognisable.
Yes, we have some heavy shop closures like many towns, but the council kept it looking decent as much as it could. Some nice buildings and nature areas, etc.

What stands out most, apart from the general vandalism and dog shit is the weird accumulation of male groups hanging around boozing in public.

So far they have taken over the local park, river walks and nature reserves. They often cluster beneath bridges or across paths where people like to run, cycle walk dogs or take children, making it less safe and filling these areas with waste. Off road bikes have ruined the nature reserves, so less people visit

Sadly the authorities don't seem to be doing much about it, it is as if these people don't have to abide by laws that the rest of us have to. Some buildings adjacent to these areas have windows put through on a regular basis, even in what you'd call 'nice' areas.
Many of them cluster at river bridges and block the path for others, most are very drunk or out of generally.
It isn't unusual to see a large man passed out across the pathway, blocking anyone getting past. If you had a pram or bike it would be really uncomfortable to have to rouse a large drunk at 2pm in the afternoon. Most are local men, with a growing amount of middle eastern men. The vast majority of them are unstable.

We see less women out cycling, walking or exercising now, and this encompasses both MC and WC areas. These people seem to have just multiplied and spread across the entire borough and have taken over all public space.
We live in a decent area that is now seeming to go downhill.
It isn't unusual to see day drinkers sat alone, surrounded by cans on a quiet residential street. And they won't move to let you past.

It's really depressing.

Yes, I’ve read them all, apart from the deleted one. Which bit specifically have I missed?

ETA I haven’t fallen for anything, although I know you’re doing that that faux goady ‘gotcha’ thing because the OP did mention Middle Eastern men once and then clarified that there are more white British men involved.

I grew up in Slough and felt it didn’t deserve its reputation growing up - full employment, new shopping centre, not pretty but safe and affluent. I visited last year some 35 years after leaving and was horrified, it is most definitely the grimmest town in the UK (has been voted most miserable place to live two years in a row by its own inhabitants). The town centre is virtually derelict but house prices are really high. I can’t imagine a worse place to live 😱.

Yes, except the deleted one.

Yes, I have noticed this. The population of my home town seems to have exploded recently, and the place feels cramped and suffocating. I often see groups of young men in the middle of the weekday wandering around aimlessly. They don't seem to be addicts though. And they don't seem to be homeless either. I think the majority are recently arrived immigrants. I only say that because I work in town and often go for a walk during my break. When I walk past them, they're almost never speaking English.

There are just too many people crammed into this small island. I'm sorry but there are. In the last decade I have watched the countryside near me slowly destroyed by developers. My local woods have been hacked down to make way for two new estates, and now the fields in the centre of the village are going to be built on as well. Anyone who lives in a city and thinks they're going to retire to the countryside is living in la la land. By the time most of us retire there won't be any countryside – just a sea of new build rabbit hutches jammed on top of one another.

I don't know if that was the Middle Eastern one, where OP came unstuck. I have been flitting the thread.

Because it’s outing. OP has friends and family.

Pubs are now expensive - maybe all the men were stashed away inside pubs in the past? @FroggletTowers - now they’re buying take out and sitting around

I haven’t seen a post like that, so perhaps it was that one.

👍

I used to live and work there in the late 1990s and the High Street was ok then Had to visit it late last year and it really has gone bad. Plenty of work & money in Slough - I really don't understand why it now so awful.

I moved to a small towns 5 years ago and my DH who has been here for 20 years has said the same. I noticed more YOBS and white males aged 14 - 22ish just hanging around during school hours drinking / smoking / vandalising the parks and river sides.
We have had an influx of northerners to the area mainly Liverpool and racism has increased massively. I am part of the BAME community and have recieved verbal threats and racisim twice in the last 1.5 years. I have avoided the river paths and now stick to main busy roads. I have small DC and am scared for their lives and future. Police have never caught anyone reported so I am just feeling usafe and I don't go out as often and avoid certain areas and also avoid going out after 3pm. Thata how bad it has gotten. I only feel safe going out within my DH.

Apart from Northerners we have a massive influx of Eartern Europeans. Ukrainians the most, Polish and Serbians. In the week they are hanging about in town at the parks and the children are not in schools. Adults drinking and smoking in play areas.

I grew up in Slough too. Left in 2006 and didn’t really go back until last year and Jesus, I was shocked.

I walked through Queensmere and the Observatory and it was just so sad. Even when my ds was little in the early 2000s, it was still full of shops.

The high street was unrecognisable from what it was when I was a teen in the mid 90s.

So sad.

I live in Cheshire. Visit Chester regularly as it’s only a short drive. This is not my experience. All all.

My town is a shithole - seaside town in the south. Hardly any shops left in the town centre, lots of knife crime in the town centre gardens, several immigrant hotels (the council try to keep that really quiet) and druggies everywhere. Nothing like when I was a kid, it's just in ruins really.

I split my time between the South Coast snd the Midlands. It's a problem in the large town in the Midlands, not in the smaller town on the South Coast.

There is a crisis across society in many areas, mh services are non existence, drug abuse and alcohol abuse are widespread, whatever drugs people are taking leave them like zombies, shop lifting and muggings are at an all time high.
It is like a nightmare social experiment, only it is real life.

We have had an influx of northerners to the area

NORTHERNERS YOU SAY??? clutches pearls Ye Gods!

I have moved back to the nice town I grew up in. Houses are ridiculous eg £2000 to rent a 4 bed house. £500K to buy a 3 bed etc

nothing available really to rent. Nice schools and nice area.

lots of men out at 11 pm at night with hoods up and hanging around garages etc cctv posted daily. Lots of thefts.

it’s all men - I have seen the footage

never seen a policeman or woman on the street in the last 5 years. The local police station is open 3 days a week 9-12 noon 😱

It's really sad and disturbing. Are they trying to prove something? That they can't be pushed around or something? That manners are for the weak?

I went to the tip today and had an absolutely massive and very heavy sack of garden waste. I just about got it in and out of the car and was dragging it over to the skip, and two young men came and offered to help. Not staff but just two blokes who looked like they were there with a building van or something. It definitely wasn't because they fancied me - I am too old and mumsy looking 😁. They were just being, for want of a better word, gentlemanly. It was really nice and really refreshing. The world would be a far nicer place if more men were like this.

Please don’t type it in capitals, it’s bad enough……

Let’s say that third lightbulb had an obviously faulty connection. Wouldn’t you risk assess before you tried?

I mean, on the basis of what you said, if that third party said “we want to murder all first born” as a policy then would that be ok on the basis that they were untested?

Totally agree. Similar here. Chester is still lovely.

Unfortunately it’s getting more common and it’s so sad.

Exactly. Reform has absolutely zero idea on how to fund its ideas.

What’s going on with crime? We share details locally and it’s really gone up