No go Britain? North East

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Your reports

Bransholme, Hull
Ive lived on Bransholme most of my life and the "chav" yob culture is getting worse. We have just endured the worst bonfire night yet (well i say night try weeks) As well as property getting damaged and fly tipping the huge fires the yobbos drinking till all hours, in gangs of 20+, i was most disapointed in Hull city council, the police and the fire brigade who where so frightened of confronting the gangs they simply went passed them and told them "to have a good night". We where told that the support would be there if it was needed and when an elderley resident went out to ask them to move on had a palette of wood thrown at her for her trouble. The police simply walked on by. Hull city council said it was nothing to do with them as it was the weekend. No wonder people are to scared to report anything when council, police and fire service are all intimidated by them. There is a saying that slums are not built they are made and the sad thing is that 90% of the yobbos dont even live in this area. What are the majority of people ment to do when the system lets them down?

Washington, Newcastle-on-Tyne
Hi we have lived in our home on a private estate for the last 9 years i recently moved to a detached property on the estate. My next door neighbours have constantly harrassed and intimidated us. The police and local authority advise they can do nothing!! This country is such a soft touch. We are helpless as no one will do anything. We keep geting passed from pillar to post. Our house is also affected as my neighbour has a building site which borders onto our garden what looks like its our land. The local authority say they can do nothing. So if we ever decide to sell our property it will depriciate in value due to police contact and the building site attached to our property. All i can say if it was an MP, police officer etc things would be different!

Hull
I feel nervous walking around certain areas in Hull at night. It is ok getting more community police but where are they at night when a lot of people commit the crime? and do not have many powers more than the average citizen ther prescence is seen but little else.

Prudhoe, Northumberland
My neighbour hood isn't safe anymore due to drugs. There are major issues within the town, dealers attempting to deal at school gates, police rumoured to be in on the goods that are stolen to fuel habits. Nothing appearing to be done when everyone in town knows who pushes, deals etc. The excuse that is made and has been for the past 5 years is that they ar elooking for bigger fish further up the tree. The culture in the schools is that of kids aspiring to have the lives of the dealers and holding them in the same esteem as pop stars.

South Shields, Tyne and Wear
Very slowly the nice places are getting worse and worse. The estate I grew up on was built in 1962 and I was born in 1971. Life there was truly rosy as all the neighbours knew each other (my parents were originals) and there was very little trouble. It is slowly becoming a no-go area due to council neglect and problem families being moved in. 9 years ago I bought a house on a council estate that was built in 1977. Once again, most of the neighbours knew each other and there were still a lot of original tenants. Despite the fact I'm gay (not openly) there were no problems. Since 1997 problem families have moved in and the standards have dropped dramatically and despite calling the police, they appear to be powerless to stop the nonsense. My old neighbour has been a widow for 2 years now and she is terrified in her own house! I honestly think this country really is going to the dogs. One day I'll save enough to retire to Spain, but for the next 30 years I'll have to brave the hooligans

Wakefield
I had the misfortune to move to an old mining village a few years ago.. Never again. Although the area is being regenerated and new houses built, I cannot see ehy people would want to move to the area. Windows in the new builds are broken before the properties are even finished! I have had my car windows broken, my wing mirrors kick off a couple of time, next door has had countless windows broken... Its ongoing. And the worst part is the police cannot do anything as everybody (including myself) is too scared to report these things. The other problem is that in an estate of about 200 houses there are 5 main families - they are all inbred scum. It is a living nightmare and I am being forced out of my home - a place where I have invested time and money into making a comfortable place to be. It is simply not on. These people that say young people are misunderstood should travel to deproved areas and try to live with the abuse and fear. Thay simply have no idea.

Bradford
I have lived in Bradford for 23 years; I am of mixed race, part West Indian, however I look white and am a Roman Catholic. As so many others who have written comments about Bradford have pointed out I agree Bradford is distinctly segregated between Muslims and Non-Muslims. The areas populated by Muslims/Asians for example Manningham, Girlington, parts of Keighley, Great/Little Horton, and Toller Lane are very very scruffy and intimidating, there are area's which I am even afraid to drive through never mind walk through my car has been pelted with stones several times and spat at. These areas which have been run down are continuously being granted regeneration grants to clean the area's up giving the properties nice new double glazing, sand blasting the brick work, new guttering and fancy new doors and gates whilst the rest of us who take pride in our areas but could still do with a helping hand are ignored. West Yorkshire Police are ridiculous, there were 3 brutal and vicious gang rapes by Asians in the area where I live in consecutive days, I know this because the victims came into a pub were I worked immediately after the attacks, when asked why they had not been mentioned on the news or in the local paper their response was because they were concentrating on the football violence (this was whilst the world cup was on) a few months later an Asian man tried to pull my best friend into his car whilst she walked home, she reported this to the police to which their response was that they couldn¿t do anything without the vehicle registration, would this have been the same had a white male tried to pull an Asian girl into his car? I think not! Bradford is a scruffy, prostitute and drug riddled, racist, vile hole and for those of you who are fortunate enough not to live there I would advise you never to visit.

Newcastle
I have lived in both London and the North East (born in Teeside) I now live with my partner in newcastle and we love the city, however we are having to move house from an apparently friendly and up market area due to the influx of students, I was once a student myself in newcsatle, but their behaviour is nothing but moronic and self centred, their behaviour in the early hours of the morning banging on our window, shouting in the street, loud music and threatening behaviour due to to much alcohol. They show absolutley no respect for the city that has welcomed them, and treat residential ares as if they part of the university campus and have no recognition that people have children sleeping street and that elderly people live there, people who have lived there all their lives, or have chosen to settle here and work. There are beer cans and vomit in the street every day of the week, this is not a weekend problem, and that id the problem. Give me newcastle born chavs anyday. ! At one point student enriched the city and now they just keep us awake all night and cost the police service and the NHS due to over drinking and noise pollution. Private landlord should have to vet their tennants more strictly in residential areas.

Leeds
I lived in Leeds for 6 years in the Hyde Park Area and never had any problems. My car radio was stolen but that was it. I walked home on my own at 3 in the morning and never any problems at all. Near to where I lived I occasionally heard that people had been stabbed or shot but nothing actually happened to me and I always fealt safe- I guess when it does happen things change forever. I think some of it is to do with the way you walk and handle yourself, when I would walk alone at night I would try and look a little crazy to put people off. Soon moving to London and hoping its not going to be worse. It's unfortunate but true I think that you are more likely to get trouble if you show signs of weakness, which will come as no relief to the vulnerable. What is it that has happened so that in the space of 2 decades public morality has become so bankrupt though? no one gives a toss.

Stockton-on-Tees
I am being victimized by an elderly couple who have lived on my street since we moved here in the late 1970's. They are convinced that I am ringing their door bell and then running away. They have had CCTV installed by the Police to "catch me at it", but in the face of the fact that the bell has being disconnected they now insist that I am playing recordings through the letterbox. The CCTV naturally captured nothing and the Police have all but told me to just ignore them, knowing as they do that I haven't done anything - but it's not easy when they shout accusations at me in the street at all hours of the day and night because, despite an utter lack of evidence that I've ever been anywhere near their property, they are - in their words to a Police officer friend of mine, "Convinced it's me". As I write I am still shaking from tonight's latest attack, partly from anger at their stupidity and mostly in fear at what they might do next, or more importantly what they might ask their rather large and handy nephew to do for them. Because, apparently, I am now not only a 32 year old prankster who gets his kicks playing "knocky" to harass old people, but a "thieving little b*****d" as well. What am I to do if someone does break into their house? How should I react to having that yelled at me at one o'clock in the morning in an otherwise quite a respectable street, where I have lived since I was 6? I don't know who to turn to for help. It is really beginning to grind me down. Every time I go for a beer in our local or even pop to the shop, I am looking over my shoulder for fear that the nephew spots me and does all the talking with his fists. I just want them to leave me alone and stop spreading their lies about me to anyone who's stupid enough to listen to them.

Farsley, Leeds
I live in Leeds (Farsley). There are alot of 'kids' out at what I would consider far too late and congregate in gangs but if you actually talk to them they are no different to what youths have always been. They are more cheeky and back chat but overall most are just wanting to hang out with their friends. Local government should invest in places for the future generation to go on an evening when they are too young to socialise in public houses but too old to want to stay in at home; especially in the winter when it gets dark early. They need safe places to go which would make the youngsters happier and give their parents piece of mind.

Bradford
There has been a marked increase over the last few years of underage binge drinking particularly girls. When drunk, these 14 and 15 years olds have no fear and run riot and this in a relatively affluent suburb.

Barnsley
I feel safe in my semi-rural village. I feel that if there was any trouble then local knowledge & peer pressure prevents disorder. I feel unsafe in and around Barnsley town centre at night, because the darkness & lack of local knowledge allows people to become intimidating without feed of reprisal.

Morpeth
Morpeth is a pretty good place to live compared to other towns in the area. There are certain parts of it i would avoid, such as the Montrose Gardens area, which is currently being demolished and rebuilt, such was the extent of graffiti, vandalism, and boarded up windows. The one time i went through there was a few years ago. I was taking a shortcut home and i was on my own. I was scared stiff. There was a big group of charvs sitting on a wall smoking something. I don't what it was, but it wasn't a cigarette, that's for sure. I didn't dare look at them; i just hurried past. I go to high school in Morpeth, and it's supposed to be a really good school, but we still have our fair share of bother, with charvs fighting and disrupting lessons and spitting at people. They have no respect for anyone and it's quite scary because when they're like that, they'll do anything. My form teacher is just new, straight out of university, but already she's finding it hard, what with kids flicking lighters around in her lessons. What really bothers me is that nothing is done about people like this. Schools don't seem to be allowed to do anything: kids can only be expelled if they attack someone really, and even then they only get sent to another school. We've got ones that have been expelled from Ashington and vice versa. I've also just read in the local paper that a group of Morpeth teenagers have been given ASBOs for their behaviour. They have been banned for certain areas and are now (i quote) 'barred from causing people harassment, alarm or distress, using or threatening violence in a public place and using rude, indecent or obscene words and gestures'. The way it is written makes it sound as if not being allowed to intimidate people is their punishment. No wonder England is becoming a worse and worse place to live if all that is done about these people is to give them an ASBO. How much evidence do they need to see that these don't work?

Cookridge, Leeds
I live in a leafy suburb of Cookridge where generally people look after their children, houses and neighbourhood. We don't rely on "the council" to do everything for us! There are areas of this large city where I would never venture even in broad daylight, vast areas, and guess what, "the council" constructed all of these grim areas!

Leeds
Having lived in Leeds for over 30 years I can quite happily say that the sense of community here has declined rapidy. Everyone lives in the 'me,me,me' mentality now. It's a rare occurrence for people to know others on the street by any more than passing reference, alarms are ignored, people are less considerate of the impact they have on others around them, including noise and parking. The ideas of leaving things unattended for any time is unheard of unless it is concreted down and even then it is vandalised with another crime number to add to the collection. There's more people from outside coming in with no sense of the culture that was here originally so a lot of the indiginous population can often feel pushed out of the way; especially when priced out to the ideals of tourism and 'trendy wine bars' constantly changing hands in the city centre, or surrounded by the vast numbers of students coming in who appear to have little respect for the residents who are left to pick ! up the pieces at the end of term. The transport system has got worse not better and the traffic on the streets now are almost at gridlock point. I'm all for development and improvement, even putting up with roadworks, but I get the distinct impression that Leeds is too full now - of people, cars, and high rise trendy new flats which will only serve the buy to let market or week time employees to the city centre. I guess there is no difference here though to any other major city in the UK.

Newcastle
I have lived in Leeds and in Newcastle upon Tyne and I feel so much safer in the latter. Leeds was a hostile and tense place to live where I never felt safe. In Newcastle I feel comfortable walking the streets at any time and would be confident challenging anyone whose behviour was unacceptable.

Bradford
Bradford is segregated between Muslim and non Muslim areas and long may it remain so. The Muslims do not want to live in the areas where everyone else - whites, blacks, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, live and if we dare to try and live in "their areas" (Manningham, Girlington) we are treated to the most appalling racist threats and abuse. My son (who was 15 at the time) and his friend were walking through a "Muslim" area a few years ago and were set upon by 6 Asian males who smashed 2 of my son's teeth and broke 2 ribs for going into "their" area. The Police refused to log it as a racially motivated attack for fear of offending the Muslims! Forced integration will completely wreck what is left of race relations - which are very tenuous - in this city. The only hope is that the government stop pussy footing about with the Muslims and stand up to them for the sake of the rest of the country.

Brough
I feel very fortunate as though we might complain of the children who play in the road near us, we do not have any problems in our particular estate with anti-social behaviour. Even the village as a whole doesn't seem to experience the problems some other areas do. I have to wonder if the fact its a private estate, not a rental/council estate is the big difference? owning your own home seems to give you a stake in it and the environment, which does seem to promote responcility and consideration for your surroundings and neighbours.

Leeds
The special constable from Leeds forgot East End Park, Richmond Hill, all of Harehills (a complete hole) and lastly but by no means least Halton Moor (AKA Beruit!) All of those areas are difficult to say the least & as an ex ambulance driver I had no choice but to work in those areas. Never, ever again.

Kingston-upon-Hull
I live in a beautiful area with a lake out front. This is the habitat of many ducks and large fish. I have taken matters into my own hands when, most days yobs come fishing and underage drinking. I have witnessed kids throwing fish as high as they can watching them land on concrete and subjecting them to cruelty. They urinate in bushes in broad daylight and are abusive when confronted. The 'tracksuit, reeboks and cap' brigade are in high power in Hull! I dread to think what the next generation of care-less kids are going to be like. It scares the hell out of me!

Leeds
Osmondthorpe, Gipton, Little London, Lovell Park Flats, MIDDLETON, Beeston, Hyde Park. No Go places to me and I'm a Special Constable!

Bradford
My parents moved from Bradford because of the endless crime and antisocial behaviour. They are both white and elderly and fealt very threatened by the growing number of asian gangs roaming the streets. The final straw was having thier church broken into and vandalised, thier house burgled and ransacked and the fear that the asian riots in the Manningham District of Bradford caused. They have now moved to Richmond in North Yorkshire where they feel much safer even though there is the occasional rowdy behaviour on Friday and Saturday nights due to drunken yobs. But then my parents arent in the Market Place at midnight and the rowdy behaviour is well confined to this small almost non residential area.

Consett
I live in the village where I was born. It is a friendly place. I know all of my neighbours. I do feel that there is a growing gap between the young and the older folk. There does not seem to be much exchange of pleasantries or eye contact between the age groups. I don't and,never have, feel threatened or intimidated. I have not found it necessary to lock myself in!

Girlington, Bradford
I am a white British family man living in ¿innercity Bradford, in Girlington¿ within a nonexistant community with no respect or mutual understanding because of government enforced multiculturism. I have just read one of the reports from Bradford and the comment ¿I feel very safe in Girlington?¿ has quite annoyed me. Probably the person who has written in doesn¿t have to put up with constant verbal abuse from Asian youths, stones¿ thrown at the windows, drug dealers on street corners, and almost daily fireworks (at anytime of the year). I have lived in the area for approximately 15 years and unfotunately can¿t afford to get out, when my partner had a gun (real or not, unknown) pointed at her through the car window in an attempted car jacking by 5 Asian youths the Polices¿ response was to advise us to treat it like a prank. When we have complained to the Police over the regular stone throwing myself and neighbors suffer their response was to tell me to move because I was the wrong colour! We don¿t walk around here if we can help it, we don¿t shop here and a couple of years ago the local church was set alight. Failed integration within some seperatist communities has already led to a breakdown of social cohesion and lawlessness. It is rare to hear the English language spoken in this area I live in and I sometimes feel I am living in another country already.

North East
the school children leave so much rubbish behind,they should be kept in school all day or the education authority taking full responsibility for allowing them out.you also get abuse,graffiti and the elderly dare not go to the bus shelter as it is full of kids.

York
People think of York and they think of the gorgeous medieval university city, but in reality it's pretty rough around the edges. There are the usual problems; teenagers getting drunk and fighting, crime, syringes left in children's play areas, drugs being fairly openly dealt etc. On top of this though people actually come from miles around to get drunk here. York breeds a kind of 'alcohol tourism.' I'm sick of hen nights and stag nights coming here and ruining the city centre on a saturday night. The police presence in town on nights like this is overwhelming but still doesn't stop the city centre on a sunday morning being awash with vomit. It's revolting. I've noticed others mention the racism. It's another issue, although not one I see so much on the street, but behind closed doors, I'm appalled by the archaic views people come out with. I've lived in other parts of the country but never known anything like this. It's absolute ignorance.

Leeds
I have no fear of walking the streets at night here in north Leeds. Yes there are a few yobs, but I think we have to guard against media sensationalism that tries to give the impression that every group of young people is a gang of thugs. The thugs need strong policing and less sympathy for the yob and more rights and protection for the householder. Many newspapers that condemn the police, judiciary and our political leaders contain very little real news but are full of stories that seem to glorify bad behaviour by so called celebrities. Many (most??)newspaper columnists have , I feel , a similar yobbish mind set to the thugs.

Leeds
I dont think it makes a difference where you live, the way things are today, drugs, rapists and thugs are everywhere. You gotta be carefull no matter where you live or where you go. More of these community police should be about they make the wierdos more aware and think twice i reckon!

Beeston, Leeds
I used to live in Beeston Leeds. Put it this way, I can understand why someone from there might blow themselves up. Horrible place, horrible people. Miserable housing plans, lots of alleyways for people to run off into. Usual council slum full of low life scum and the poor people that can't afford to live in area's more suited to them. Hoodies and thugs all over the place. Lots of rubbish, kids riding on motorbikes, people driving across the park in cars etc. I have NO faith in the govenment ever sorting it out. I don't live in that area now thankfully. Gave up trying to have my own life away from mum and dad for the time being simply because I can only really afford to live in slum area's right now, that don't suit my mentality.

Bradford
I feel very safe in Girlington I have lived for over 20 year in the same house. A lot has changed and for the people on the outside looking in it will seem like a ghetto with high rates unemployment, crime and youth around street corners. However one thing I have noticed over the years is more and more English People (white) are selling up and moving out. The local school primary school student population at a and a very educated guess would be 98% ethnic minority (or in this case majority) mainly or Pakistani origin and the remaining others. Girlington seems and feels like a very segregated society. One would ask after all the countless reports conducted after the Manningham riots and all the racial tension has anything been done about this situation. The blunt answer would be no nothing practical that has benefit the community and made a difference on the ground to the people. Do I feel safe yes totally would others people not living in the neighbourhood ¿feel¿ safe walking/driving through I think not. Even though there is nothing to fear at all it¿s the perception and image of the neighbourhood that is created what people remember.

Bradford
Joyriders (a child was run over yesterday on the street.) Flytipping and total lack of care for the environment, rodent problems, shops burning their plastic and rubbish instead of disposing of it ethically, fireworks being set off by kids in the street. If i leave my front door open, children just walk or crawl into my house unwatched by parents, cricket and football being played out in the street regardless of people's cars - no respect of property. Litter EVERYWHERE, despite the councils efforts to keep it tidy. Young children often shouting obsenities at passers by, drug dealers parked up in the cars on corners and on dark roads, gangs of youths hanging around and scaring lone pedestrians because they have nothing else to do. This is Bradford. Once you get out of the currently regenerated town centre, you find out what life is really like in Bradford. Yes, i will send photos if i get the chance to take them.

Sandyford, Newcastle on Tyne
This area is safe area to live in. House or street crime is very rare. It is safe to go out alone in the evening and there are interesting shops open after work.

Stannington, Sheffield
I've left my door unlocked before, granted by accident but nobody came in. In summer I'd happily leave my back door wide to the wall and all my windows open as I went about the housework, or whilst I listened to music whilst using my computer. I'd not be able to hear anyone come in, but I doubt they would. This is where living in a terraced house helps. Having a shared back-passage and having to cross the back of the property of my neighbours means that we see people as they come and go. We all say hello to one another, help each other out, chat and socialise. It's what a community is all about. As neighbours we know one another and the day our kitchen ceiling collapsed, upon hearing the bang, the first people to my (already open backdoor) were my neighbours. They had rushed to make sure we were ok, and then helped us with the huge clean-up that we faced. My neighbours are lovely, if we didn't talk to one another then naturally I'd feel isolated, but what's the sense in not talking to them? A community is as much as what you make it as it is about the people who live there. If you don't make the effort to at least smile at someone how can you expect to ever have a friend or someone to call on when you need help? New neighbours moved in earlier this week. I met them that evening whilst they were having a gethering (by chance I passed them at about midnight as I arrived home and they were in the garden). We started chatting, they pulled up a chair for me, they poured me a drink the next two hours were spent getting to know each other and my new neighbours friends. It's just a shame that I'm going to be moving out within the next month. But still, once I arrive in my new appartment I'll be sure that I get to know my new neighbours just as well as I know my current ones.

Barnsley
Poor education and lack of discipline lead to anti social behavior in many areas. Crime and drugs are rife in communities all around the bourgh. Local council estates are run down and not safe at night with children terrorizing the neighborhood. Specifically children aged around 14 - 16, with the odd exception of the overgrown immature 18+. Towns are dirty, and riddled with rubbish, and, while there is some effort to tidy the streets the dirtiness and pollution remains as does litter outside the center of town. Thugs and "Chavs" generally rule around here. I sit in college listening to "students" (under 18) talk about how they got smashed and wasted and how they all sleep around and beat people up.

Leeds
Call me cynical or what!! Just before the last government elections, our area had regular community police patrols introduced. This saw the disappearance of the thugs and yobs who were disturbung neighbours. Strangely enough since the election we never see them and guess what. Yes the yopbs are back.

Grimsby
3 broken windows in 4 weeks - mindless vandalism.

Hartlepool
The main problem around here is Drugs and the crime it breeds.I.E.Robbery and street thefts mostly preying on the elderly and the weak[who else ?].Anti social behaviour is also a big problem in certain areas of the Town,young people drunk and messing around disturbs the older generation who feel very intimadated.This kind of behaviour seems to happen most around late night off licences etc.Lets face it there is nothing for the kids to do around here except get drunk.Things were the same for me in the 1980s.Right back whoever i have asked all give the same answer as i just have,it seems that everybody growing up around here had the same problem.Find these young people something to do and this kind of thing will become less of a problem.

North East
There should be a full investigation, and Panorama programme, about the north east of england.Its the most racist, and homophobic area in Britain. Even the police ask my son who is gay and had homophobic hate crime done on him there many times Why do you live here? And another policeman said recently to my son Its a good job you are not black as well living here. That would be as bad. It really wants sorting out and exposed, just how bad this area is, for gay people or coloured people even from some policemen who are predjudiced unbelievably SO MANY of them themselves.

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