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.

I don’t know how tent pitching won’t just make this all
worse.

They’re called Tent Cities in America. Quite a lot of them.

We have the same problem without the booze, They smoke instead and come from abroad via the local hotels.

Same in my town in North Wales (not rhyl).

Shops all closed down.. tons of vape shops and "Turkish Barber" money laundering shops. Even the charity shops and Poundland are closing down now

We've never really had an immigration problem here until a couple of years ago.. I've noticed loads more creepy middle eastern men just lurking around doing nothing. There's been reports on our local facebook group that they like to follow school girls home and ask them for their instagram/snapchat accounts.

Loads of alcoholics and people drinking in the street. Most of them are banned from Wetherspoons and the normal pubs are £7 a pint so i can't blame them. 😁

When I was a kid, Dudley was a lovely place to go. Merry Hell killed it!

Surely no one wants that replicated here. Seems an odd way to go.

I can’t imagine anyone wanting that.

Do we get a say though..

Won’t the new policy see it happen? I know you’re not asking for the policy don’t worry. I just find it really strange.

Tent cities will change the landscape even more.

ETA just saw your edit.

This describes a lot of places I’ve visited recently, including Leamington Spa and Stratford upon Avon, Bath too,

I live in a large north western town and it’s not what I see. I would probably describe the town centre as rough but there aren’t massive groups of men drinking. Few homeless people knocking around. The local parks and wetland areas are still lovely places to take the kids for a walk. It’s definitely not something I’ve come across. Neither were I’m from in the midlands. I’m surprised this is so widespread

We also have a massive immigrant hotel in the town. So if it was them. I’d see them

Round me the groups of men clustering in alleyways and parks etc are generally E European tradespeople who work hard and live cheaply in (often unlicensed and unregulated) HMOs. They have no social spaces in their homes as every room is turned into a two- bed bedroom or even dormitory style.

They are not bad men, but it creates a certain vibe.

And it is true that asylum seekers get housed concentrated in specific areas where the gvt can commission big underused cheap hotels.

If anyone watched the horrific BBC documentary about Assad’s jails and treatment of dissenters the other night you might understand why so many Syrian refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are prepared to come and live in converted office blocks 4 to a room, with no immediate prospects than stay in Syria.

For example.

But, the neglect of our high streets, the move to Internet shopping, hardly helps.

Boston is full of Polish people who are pretty well-behaved.

A lot of these individuals will be unemployed, at the lower end of the educational spectrum and not have much of a support network.

Services funded by councils and charities are having their budgets slashed so there's nowhere for them to go or things for them to do. And they probably don't know how to get motivated because they don't come from those kind of backgrounds.

We need factories or some kind of new industry to employ people so they can grow some kind of self worth.

The EU has great safety standards.
Farage May be saying it’s going to be fab but we all know he’s a liar, right?

I though those were 'posh' places ? What went wrong ?!

The whole country has been carpet bombed with diversity

Diversity is our strength.

That's a good way to put it. 🙂

And I have a bridge I can sell you.....

Shithole town here too. Barber shops on nearly every street (some with 3/4), drug addicts, and yes, a massive influx of immigrants the town isn’t big enough to house. Many spend their day hanging around the town centre with not much to do.
Plenty of feral homegrown youths too, it’s idyllic here.

It was most certainly said with sarcasm.

I'm dreading tent pitching. We're a Welsh tourist area but also a lot of farming. The thought of being overrun with wild camping and the mess they make, never mind scaring the animals, leaving rubbish they might ingest. Before the police would ask them to pack up and go 🙈

And I lied about the bridge...

👍🏻 😊