No go Britain? South West

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Your reports

Bristol
We have been having constant trouble with one family 3 doors down from us for the past 6 months. From fighting, drinking and threats of violence to constant noise, swearing, gangs of youths, overdoses, stabbings, these all generate from one house! Neighbours are too scared to do anything and although we have contacted the local council they have been slow to respond (interestingly, Bristol City Council were ordered, by their ombudsman, to pay £2000 to a couple whose complaint of ASB had been ignored and not acted upon). We have been told by the council to fill in an "ASB Diary", we have responded to them that surely due to the constant police visits, they attend most weeks, that they are in breach of their council tenancy agreement and therefore should be served with an injunction to stop their behaviour, possibly leading to eviction should they continue. The response from the council has been total silence! The councils perverse social experiment, of housing problem families within non-problem areas has spectacularly failed. These families are not working class victims, they are an underclass to which the concepts of work and social responsibility have no meaning. We are reaping the harvest of decades of bad political thinking, from education to the welfare state. This country needs to send a message to this underclass that their time is up and we need to take back the streets.

Bristol
I have lived in Bristol around 33 years, and have learnt how to survive and not get beaten or mugged. Stay in or use taxis. I was attacked once by a gang of youths, they asked me the time and when i looked at my watch, they hit me over the head. I almost died. Of course nobody was caught. As far as I can see the whole street crime problem is a direct result of political decisions. Knee jerk reactions like asbos and CCTV do not work, we need to concentrate on education, housing, employment, poverty and yes, immigration.

Cornwall
I was a victim of an unprovoked racial attack, resulting in a neurosurgeon suggesting surgery on my spine in an attempt to correct the damage. The perpetrator who is known to the police admitted the assault and was only given a caution. During the police investigations, my family were harrassed by the police. They only did 'something' as I complained at the fact they were not doing anything and following a barrage of letters from myself to the senior levels of the police force. One complaint went to the IPCC, to no avail

Sea Mills, Bristol
Boarded up council houses, gangs of menacing youths (even during the day, not just at night), unlicenced scrambler bikes using public open space for racing and causing a danger to walkers, grown adults hanging around all day drinking special brew, teenage mothers with upteen babies... These are just some of the problems. The doctors surgery in the centre of Sea Mills is regularly vandalised and doctors/nurses' cars broken into. It has also been the target of attempted arson. Its a lovely surgery with great doctors, but it feels more like a prison these days. The doctors are there to help the local community not be vicitims of crime.

Bristol
Due personal circumstance, I moved to Bristol in early 2006 to take stock and rebuild life. It is probably the worst move I have ever made. Living close to the City Centre, but on the cheap and wrong side of town, life has become a misery. I'm a 6 foot, 47 year old, male who has been beaten and mugged three times. Three times the police have become involved. Descriptions have been given, the requisite calls have been made to the bail hostels in the area, the police keep in contact for a couple of weeks, then that call comes. The one that says we've run out of ideas, but we'll keep it on record and get back to you if we ever find anyone that fits the bill. Upsum. If I have to go out after dark a cab picks me up at the door and drops me back at the door. Otherwise I stay indoors. As soon as I've saved enough money to get the hell out of here then I'll be gone and I won't be coming within 100 miles of Bristol ever again.

Cornwall
This village is awful. Large gangs of youths hanging about on street corners, causing no good. Since, I moved here I have been the victim of graffiti, broken windows, flour eggs etc. My neighbours also have various wounds on their property. At night is is unusual if my door and front window is not using for 'knock and run' several times a night, sometimes late into the night. This may be a Cornish village, but it is far from quiet and tranquil. It contains a large council estate where I believe they house all those they cannot house anywhere else. I live on a private estate, but you would not think so sometimes. Kids are let out late at night to roam the pavements and you always have to think twice about being out late and coming home. No one seems to have any regard for their property or what it looks like. There is a property near me that was let out to a council tenant, it is in in a terrible state. Also cars have been abandoned and like I mentioned property damaged and residents scared witless.

Bristol
I have had absolutely enough of being victimised by anti-social, drunk and drugged children and young people. In the area I live in, the parents of the children and young people are more intimidating than their children, and many people are afraid to confront the young people for fear of what they - or their parents - will do. The Police have all my respect and have been terrific, when they have been able to respond, but our area is short-staffed so response rates are slower than usual. I would like to see a nationwide petition of people who, like me, have had enough and want an end to this horrendous behaviour. I want polititians to see how many thousands of people find this behaviour, which includes vandalism, car theft, burglary, mugging, violent behaviour, verbal abuse, and bullying (to humans AND animals) totally unacceptable. I look forward to your report and thank you again for doing this

Street
There are no police here only very expensive parked vehicles. On two occasions, one a theft from a charity shop till, and the other an atempted break into a vehicle (parked outside the police station)the police failed to respond. All of our policeman have been redeployed into bristol abandoning rural somerset to its own devices.

Long Ashton, Bristol
Huge housing developments have turned one end of what used to be an ancient, historical village into a rabbit warren of tiny, ticky-tacky boxes filled with people who have no intention of contributing to the local community. Parking is now a nightmare because of policy that prevents provision of adequate parking on new estates. We have noise, kids shouting, dogs barking, litter, far more traffic. "Social housing" provision means that we have acquired a small ghetto of frankly undesirable people. Despite the village being enlarged by 30% there are no new facilities, no extra doctors, no new schools, no new shops, no facilities for young people, no extra Police cover. I'm moving out as soon as I can.

Swindon
Swindon, well its rubbish.

Bideford
I live in an area where people think there are problems, adults complain about 'gangs of youths' but actually they are all pretty well behaved and doing nothing that we all didn't do 20 years ago. Its up to communities to help keep youngsters in line, not the police.

Bristol
I am fortunate to live in amongst the areas around the downs which have well educated and respectful teenagers. However I have friends in areas such as Southmead and Horfield where I have received 2 beatings and countless verbal abuse for no reason at all. What I also find frustrating is that I like to wear a hoody because it's a handy piece of clothing for the winter, but because adults assosiate hoodies with teenage yobs I get dodgy looks from adults in my own area even though im a law abiding citizen. These teenage yobs ruin it for all city teenages whether well off or not. The government has a near impossible job here unfortunatly especially with Bristol state schools being the worst performing in the country.

St Paul's, Bristol
I've been in Bristol for several years now and unfortuanelty moved to an area rife with crime. St Pauls seems to be one of the worst areas I have ever lived in. Drug dealing and gangs of black youths, Jamacian and Somali wander the streets acting in a way as if they own them. The drug dealing is common and often involves young black children and also mothers. This I see on a regular basis from my own home. The police know which houses and familys are involved but nothing seems to happen to stop it. There is a hostel at the top of my street which houses some of the worst people in society including known paedophiles and drug addicts just out of prison, what a perfect place for them with all the drug dealers and known crack houses within walking distance. I have also been a victim of 2 racist attacks since moving to the area, once by a somali gang and the other a jamacian gang. Both were caught on ccctv but was very poor footage as the police said the cctv was more for show than capturing decent images. I happen to be white so racist attacks do occur on white people. Another problem we have is prostatution, the crack whores as they are known don't care and will approach anyone, even if your with children and family. Late at night you can hear them shouting and screaming up and down the road. I've been told this is when they are being chased by their punters after ripping them off, this does make me laugh though. Another problem the qrea has is to do with rubbish and the new scheme the council brought in, were as they will not remove rubbish if they can get away with it. For weeks rubbish that does not fit in the bins can lay in the streets for weeks rotting away and creating a haven for rats and stray dogs. Not good at all. Overall the police and local councils need to start doing something about this and make the streets cleaner and safer to walk down.

Bristol
Walking from my office I the city centre to my car I have been robbed once for my laptop at 18:00 in the evening. Three times my car has been hit whilst parked and I have come back to see it seriously damaged. Last year while heading from a city centre pub after drinking with colleagues I was attacked by some drunken louts who¿d been kicked out of a pub and ended up with a black eye, split lip and a couple of days off work with concussion. The large square behind my office in the city centre after 5pm is crawling with prostitutes and drug dealers ¿ it¿s a virtual no go area and one that I¿d defiantly not feel safe walking through on foot.

Bristol
I moved to Bristol, St.George from a small but very friendly town in Wiltshire, Malmesbury where I had lived for four years after moving out of London in 1997. Bristol seemed to have a fair reputation and seemed like an exciting place to be for someone who never lived there before. Having lived in the St.George area since 2001, I now know that Bristol is a very sad place indeed. Yes I can't stand the teenage hoodie culture that resides in pockets of estates in this and other areas in Bristol. Yes I do hate the fact that teenagers can talk to me like I'm some sort of a vulnerable person on the street. I hate the fact that they go round putting graffitti all over the neighbourhood. I hate the fact that over three seperate incidents, none of which were down to what I did or did not do, that it has cost me in excess of £3000 in the space of 18 months in repairs caused by vandalism which my motor cars have been subjected to. However, I have actually bought and put on my own hoodie clothes on, and ventured out into the streets to meet these rebel youthes face to face. In the end I determined that yes, these kids are the scum of our towns and cities, but there really is nothingelse for them to do. We (adults) have pubs round every corner, strip clubs, massage parlours and a host of other things for adults. But there's nothing for teenagers. The youth attempt to live like their idols (parents, rock-starts etc.) but without any form of infrastructure or finance. They want to ride motorbikes like their uncles parents or strangers they see on the streets, but there is no way they can legally do this, mainly due to financial restraints. They want to drive cars like those fortunate adults who spend all their income on their cars making them look attractive and cool, but teenagers can not, again due to fianncial reasons. But the lack of finances doesn't stop these young blood, because they don't mind being 14/17 years old and to be seen riding a Mini-Moto, on which even they look like giants. They do not need to own a car to drive it, because they steal cars and go for joy rides. They know that it is wrong for them to do these things, but they don't care. Because they have no alternative. If all teenagers were law abiding creatures as we would want them to be, they would probably die of boredom and frustration, because we as adults do not take enough care as what we are exposing our children to. Even my 11 month old baby tries to imitate me, at home. She tries to touch and feel things she sees me doing at home. She doesn;t want to play with soft furry toys, because tha's not what sheesees me doing! This is the same with teenagers or children. For example women bring home different men every weekend and are comfortable to introduce a different stranger to their teenage children every week. What kind of impression does that give them? Yes. They want to do the same! and because they are not allowed, they go ahead and do it anyway, but out of sight. As there is absolutely nothing constructive for them to do. Particularly because most of them come from young single parent homes, where they are effectively competing against their young parents for fun and pleasure. Imagine suddenly taking away the drinking rights of all adults in the country. Imagine the effect that removal of a simple single luxury would have on the morale and behaviour of adults across the country. Imagine not giving (unemployed) adults any money (DHSS) for subsistence. They surely would go and do exactly as teenagers do, steal to meet their needs. Act irresponsibly and incosiderately. Imagine being exposed to all the luxuries in life, be it directly or through the media, but not being able to taste those wonders that exist around you. That's how it must be for teenagers. We live in times where everything is concieved, developed and done in the interest of adults. Nobody thinks about children, especially teeneagers. If a pub is somewhere an adult could go and have a drink to wind down, what equivalent is there for a teenager? Nothing! So what do we expect? We need to take into account the needs of teenagers and allocate funding at a governmental level to deal with their needs, otherwise we deserve all the negativity brought baout by our youth upon ourselves. As highlighted by your programme, we have an epidemic problem with our youth. We should be ashamed to claim that we are one of the strongest economies in the world. We should be ashamed to impose democracy in lands as far as IRAQ, IRAN and other parts of the world, because we have a lot to take care of in our own back gardens before we have any right to tell other nations how to behave. Those countries certainly don't have problems with their children to this extent. Despite their oppressive nature, those countries benefit from close family ties and mutual respect towards and from their children. Whereas in the UK, it has become acceptable for children to leave their homes ASAP so that (single) parents can get on with their own evil ways. Children obviously don't look back . I personally am not inclined to address these issues, in my neighbourhood, unless I was to give up on my life my long term dreams and to radically change my views and to by quit my job and become a politically active member of society. So I shall (soon) move on and get away from the 'scums of the earth' as I see them sometimes, but with my eyes looking over my shoulder with guilt as to the state of affairs life has become and how those children's lives are being wasted through a lack of care, support and guidance by the very people (adults/parents/officials/government etc.) they rely on for guidance. It was announced that the USA spent 74 billion US Dollars on the IRAQI war. The UK has spent an equally sunstantial amount too. What for? Democracy! But what about democracy for our children? It would not cost no where near as much as that to being democracy home to our children, but it's evident that we simply don't care about our kids. We just want to be a part of the 'street-scene' and that is exactly the moral our children are inheriting from us. To be selfish, careless and just like the rappers that portray a careless irrational lifestyle which they idolize to the maxxx. Our children want to be like us. They want to mimic what we do and how we behave. But, unlike our babies, toddlers whom we go to extents to care for (funding baby-sitters, nice clothes, highest standard of food, rides in our 4x4 vehicles to school etc), when our children reach a certain teenage, we tend to forget about their needs or in most cases can not meet their needs, because their needs become as costly as our very own, with drink, drugs, sex and rock&roll being high on their agenda (too!). It will not be long beofre we have to rely on these delinquents to look after us as old-age pensiners, but it is clear that a lot of us are moving abroad to get away from the lowest standards of human-kind in the world brewing in our homes. Some of these teeagers will never make it as responsible adults and valuable members of their communities and it is a shame that where historically diseases, lack of knowledge and nature killed our societies. Now it is us who is doing the same ! thing to ourselves.

Fishponds, Bristol
In recent years there has been a huge decline in the 'quality of life' on the Fishponds estate in Bristol. Large gatherings of youths, aged between seven and sixteen years of age, late at night, openly drinking, smoking, and sometimes using drugs is commonplace. Damage to vehicles and property occurs, and stolen cars are dumped in our streets. The police know who many of the offenders are, but the 'burden of proof' to bring these people to book takes a very long time. Householders are extremely reluctant to remonstrate with the perpetrators for fear of retribution. The Council seems to have a policy of rehousing 'problem families' amongst decent, law abiding residents, in the hope that these persistant offenders will change. Unfortunately, such people do not change, they just diminish the standards of the whole community.

Melksham
I concurr with the previous comments left about Melksham. It is a lovely place to live during the day but at night that all changes, you have the local youths hanging around the burger shops and the bus shelters hurling abuse at anyone who dares walk in the town. They also take over the supermarket car parks playing football, shouting, swearing and drinking until the small hours. Admittedly the police make an appearence in town on Thursday Friday and Saturday evenings but they never seem to catch the people behind the trouble.

Bath
We have moved approx 2 miles from the city centre of Bath to what appears in the daytime to be a quiet idyllic setting with stunning countryside views. We have however in less than 2 years been victims of more than 10 car crimes, one night of damage resulted in one of our cars being written off. Mostly we have seen minor damage to wing mirrors & we soon noticed that all cars on the street had either damaged mirrors or had their mirrors removed. (This is not a narrow street, it is a main road & the damage is always done pavement side so it's not other cars doing the damage by squeezing through a tight gap). Every Sunday we go out & we wonder if our cars have survived the weekend nights in tact! The police have had problems they say with 'local youths' & they say they have some idea who is doing this but unless they are caught in the act there is nothing the police can do & of course they do not have the resources to be there each weekend when these sprees of damage take place. Neighbours have in the past, collected a list of some 26 occurences of car vandalism within the period of one month, only to be told that the incidents should have been reported seperately at the time. I know this is 'petty crime' & is so widespread now that it is very difficult to police but it really does leave a very unpleasant feeling in neighbourhood. I am very dissapointed as a Bathonian to have to write about this & would have expected this more when we lived in the city centre but we had no problems there. I feel quite worried & unsafe even, arriving home late after a night out in town in a taxi just in case I come across these vandals doing there worst, as I am sure I would not be able to just walk past & say nothing. Maybe time to invest in a webcam....?

Bournemouth
I am sending this message on behalf of my mother who lives in the Bournemouth/Poole area. This year she was given a 'free" bus pass however the bus company, Wilts and Dorset abandoned the twice hourly service she walks 20 minutes to reach. In turn the revamped/privatised Bournemouth Corporation "Yellow Bus" service then took over and after approximately three months has adandoned the route, she now has to wait for an hourly bus service coming all the way from Swanage down the coast. The bus service in Bournemouth Poole is an absolute mess (both bus services compete on just one road (Ashely Road between Bournemouth and Poole with virtually buses in line of sight) yet MPs potentially in response to letters and council members seem powerless to ensure a service for many OAPS and those physically handicapped such as the blind lady my mother used to meet at the bus stop.

Exwick, Exeter
teenagers drinking,shouting late at night,harrassing young mums,my ten yr old being bullied by 14/15 yr olds,the local park is a no go for youngsters as after a certain time older teens come along and tell them its "our park get out!",letting off fireworks late at night,neighbours rowing,parents just dont care what their kids are up too aslong as theyre not in the house with them!and if you tell them what their kids have been doing they abuse you!the list is endless,its not all bad in the day its ok its nighttimes we get lots of problems.

Bath
I truly believe that bath is a wonderful beutifull city in which to reside, i am constantly amazed by the kindness and versitily of the cities residents and feel truly honoured to be a member of such a diverse given community

Bristol
take a trip down to drug city! muggings, open sellings drugs, the police seem to NOT.

Newton Abbot
Newton Abbot, thirteen years ago I moved here and it was a lovely little market town. Now me and my friends are all roughly 18 wouldn't dream of wondering through town late at night like we use to. The town is a shell of it's former self and now is over run with anti-social behavior that knows no bounds; pelting a disabled man with stones or vandalising grave stones. A month ago I moved here to East London and what an improvement those London stereotypes really are stereotypes.

Melksham
Sir Ian may well be able to leave 'his' door unlocked, but he really needs to have a look round the rest of the country to see the real picture. I have only ever seen a police officer once in our area in over two years. The local youths take over at night, in the morning we are greeted with the mess, burger wrapers, lager cans etc, and all the mindless damage done to fences, cars and other property. Ring the police I hear you say, but what's the point, they can't do anything, even if they had some more manpower, they have lost all their powers. Sir Ian needs to wake up and smell the coffee. I also lived in Sea Mills for a number of years, when I visit I am always shocked to see how bad it has got, it really was a nice place to live, that was until Labour came to power and got rid of all the Police.

Sea Mills, Bristol
we moved to Sea Mills in bristol a good 13-14 yeasr ago we had travled from yorkshire. for the first 4-5 years of being there it was a really nice area but as the years went on it got loud and scruffy and now when i look out my window i see 14-16 year olds drinking and smoking in a lane just down the road from me something has to be done.

Andover
We live in King Arthurs Way Andover in Hampshire and it is really bad.

Bristol
I moved to Bristol from Heswall on the Wirral 4 years ago. We moved to an area as a necessity due to commuting and cost. Our road houses mainly families who but there is an estate a few roads behind our house whch seems to generate an endless supply of youths with a uniform of baseball caps and hooded tops. As we are lucky (or unlucky) enough to have a row of shops 150 yards from our house, these youths seem to be attracted to them like a moth to bright light. We have had a window broken and several times, myself and my neighbours have been forced out of an evening as gangs walk down our road to check if our cars remain intact. Most neighbours have suffered broken wing mirrors and dents. However, were we to catch these youths in the act, what good would it do? I am sure that if my neighbour and I restrained an offender whilst awaiting the police we would face some sort of assault charge. Myself and colleagues at work of a similar age cannot remember acting in this way in our youth,(vandalism, violence, hanging on street corners) which is probably why we ended up with good jobs...so that begs the question, what will come of these youths and what will become of our society in the next 10-15 years? Are these children our future? It is interesting to note that this is a problem that occurs nationally, will the programme investigate the cause?

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