Home town

[Oma]

Today we decided to go to Sunderland town centre , our home town.
We haven’t been for over 10 years,

To say we are shocked is a over statement.
What used to be the heart of our once proud city is now a run down slum.

Shops closed and boardered up the ones that were open were betting shops nail bars and charity shops.
One street that everyone flocked to was a row off at least 15 take away and kebab shops.

It used to be packed everyday and every shop you could think of , it was like a ghost town..
We went into one shop and the man in there said we were only the second people in since yesterday .

So sad to see , Sunderland council should be ashamed of themselves allowing it to get into that state , no investment has been put into it.

They built a huge train station that opened recently, it was totally empty.
Another great city being left to die 😢🤬

[Nanto2girls]

What a shame Oma. It'sgetting a bit like that in Wakefield,where we have gone for years.

I must say our town has had a lot of money spent on it, and we hear a lot of nice comments.
There is a local page on facebook, people from Leeds, Sheffield, Wakefield,Pontefract and a lot of surrounding areas say they prefer to come to our town instead of their own.

[Plantaholic]

How sad it was Oma for you to see it like that. Do they still have their football team?

[Lizzie48]

Oma, DS1 was in Aberdeen the other week, he said exactly the same about that city, 10 years ago it was alive.. He said the same with Hull, he always likes a walk round Hull! He said that there are so many shops closed. A sign of the times!

[Oma]

Yes plant still have the football team , itbeloved to the fans 😁

I just think as Sunderland has city status it’s disgusting the way it’s so run down.

[Gemini]

Oma, that's very sad.

York is a beautiful historic city and a tourist city, so not becoming too run down generally,

In terms of the city shops however it is a different story. We don't go in often but every time we do things change. So many good businesses closed, or upped and moved to the out of town shopping parks. We never had pound shops or unused shops as there are now.

[Sum1Ls]

It’s a nationwide problem sadly. For decades there has been no investment in manufacturing which has been run down with no incentive for new industries. A nation cannot thrive on being a service industry only, and where there has been innovation in Tech and IT, it’s all along the M4 corridor.

I’m from Nottingham originally and the great industries of the past are long gone. There’s no lace manufacturing now, Raleigh bicycles went long ago, Players gone (thankfully in this case) and the once proud Boots has been run down by its American owners.

It’s still a great university city which boosts the economy and there are lots of start ups although, like so many places retail is in difficulty. The once wonderful Oxford Street here in London is now a sad shadow of itself.

However, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Newcastle seem to have weathered the worst of the decline.

Thinking about it, the big city mayors seem to have has a very positive impact on the prosperity of their region and are a real voice for the North. It’s a tragedy, in my view, that instead of the HS2 which is pretty pointless, there should have been a HSR linking Newcastle with Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool crossing the Pennines. That would have helped regeneration enormously.

The other thing needed is a nationwide regulated bus service like we have in London. Privatisation was a disaster with people in small towns unable to travel to work or shops and thus further impacting on local economies.

The South East of England is bursting at the seams with the neglected lovely cities of the North desperately needing investment in new technologies and thus attracting people to move there. So many young people gravitate to London because that’s where the jobs are. Then they have to move to the surrounding South East because they can’t afford property prices when the children appear, while schools in London are closing because the children are disappearing.

It all needs long term planning and investment.

[Plantaholic]

Sum for Prime Minister, when she is better of course.

[Oma]

I agree plant , she hits the nail on the head every time 😁👏👏👏

[Enfys]

I think it is a problem nationally sadly. Our town centre is the same and I never go there now, What used to be a lovely, vibrant centre with great shops and cafes is now runs down and mainly used by drug dealers and beggars! It’s a real problem but so sad when I remember what it used to be like. It was a very popular holiday town but nOw with the university there is so much student accommodation in the town centre and it all seems geared up for that.

[Oma]

Enfys , the same with Sunderland , they closed M&S down and are converting it into Student accommodation,
We had a huge shop that sold everything and that was converted for students also.

[Clover]

Every piece of available land here in Swansea seems to be designated for student accommodation. We lost Wilko, Debenhams, BHS etc. which are now standing empty.Luckily we still have M and S and Bonmarche which I know have closed in a lot of places.

[Gemini]

Clover our Wilko ( which was actually out of town) BHS, Debenhams , and Bon Marche have gone. We had a lovely fairly new big, admittedly out of town John Lewis which went and we miss.

[Oma]

Our big Wilko closed but B&M took over, we are lucky we still have all our big shops in Washington , although Halford closed down last week .
In Sunderland the Debenhams and TK max closed no doubt that will be converted for students also.

[Lizzie48]

Oma, I did read that Halfords had closed in Delft last week, not ready anything since though.