Perhaps not the proudest accolade - a street in Birmingham was labelled amongst the grimmest in Britain after residents complain their homes are invaded due to mountains of rubbish that haven't been cleared in 10 years. We speak to Brummies about the state of the streets across the city.
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00:00 - Um, Aynsworth is pretty rough in certain parts of it.
00:05 Um, I mean I live in Aynsworth Wood,
00:08 and I have to say the further you get out,
00:10 it gets better.
00:11 Spark Hill and Spark Brook are a bit rough.
00:13 Don't want to offend anybody that lives there.
00:16 Yeah, Allen Rock, that's a bit rough on me.
00:19 Live to, any local I'd tell you anything new.
00:22 (laughs)
00:23 The notorious bad spots, they've always been the same.
00:27 It's up to the council,
00:28 this was about to get it really, yeah.
00:30 (laughs)
00:33 - I shouldn't really say this,
00:34 'cause I live here, but it's Norfield.
00:36 For me it's Norfield, I just think
00:38 it's quite unruly up there,
00:40 but I think due to the youth,
00:43 a lot of the youth not having anything to do,
00:46 like it just becomes a playground for them basically,
00:49 so everything just then becomes destroyed
00:52 or noisy or whatever,
00:55 but I do believe that there should be more like,
00:58 things for people and youth especially to do,
01:01 'cause there's nothing, they're bored, people are bored,
01:03 and that's why you end up with so much going on
01:07 and so much rubbish and so much everything,
01:09 'cause there's nothing to help basically.
01:12 - Just the city centre as a whole really.
01:18 So last summer was the last time that I came,
01:20 so it's been nearly a year,
01:22 and I can't believe how dirty places are.
01:25 It doesn't look great at all really.
01:28 Quite disappointed to see the state of the city as it is.
01:33 - Yeah.
01:36 I don't know, I feel like down by the market,
01:37 it's really scary actually.
01:40 Those are quite, they all shout at each other
01:42 and they're all fighting,
01:43 it's a bit like no black kids are gonna buy them.
01:45 - I mean it's difficult to say, it's quite nice everywhere.
01:49 I mean, I wouldn't say anywhere's grim,
01:51 there's places which have building works around
01:53 which can be grim, but I could tell that it's gonna go
01:56 somewhere so it's not that grim.
01:57 There's an area between New Street and Digbeth
02:00 that's just an empty lot, which it's not grim as such,
02:02 but it's just empty, I'd say.
02:04 - I think no doubt the council and Birmingham City
02:09 are trying to do as much as they can,
02:11 and you can see in some areas where are being redeveloped,
02:15 you can see some areas where you can see litter pickers
02:18 and people going round to try and clear up any rubbish.
02:22 Obviously, economically it's very difficult
02:26 because of the disputes with probably council workers
02:32 who aren't necessarily feeling that they're getting
02:34 the same advantages as private workers,
02:38 but we know that somehow we've gotta balance the books.
02:41 So I think it's the same probably in all cities
02:44 throughout the UK, and it's very easy for some people
02:47 just to pick on one street that's in a bad way
02:50 because of whatever dispute or whatever the problem is,
02:54 and actually use that to brand the whole city
02:58 as being like that, and I don't think it is.
03:00 Birmingham's a great city, and it has some wonderful areas.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]