I'm here today in Erdington, a suburb just five miles northeast of central BIrmingham. It's an area with a fairly mixed reputation to outsiders. I thought I'd come along today to speak to people on the streets and find out if any myths surrounding Erdington can be safely shattered.
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00:00 Well, Erdington itself, it's got local people, you know, like for instance the butcher's
00:06 in there, you've got local shops that you can go to, but it is run down and it needs
00:10 more money spending on it to build it up to speed. I mean, as I said, like years ago,
00:16 it looked more better and it looks grotty and tatty. I mean, they should be spending
00:20 more money on the local people, not just, you know, in government, in these posh areas.
00:27 It's all certain areas, they just let them go to pot, they don't really care about the
00:31 area, they don't care about local people. There are no good things about this area now.
00:36 It's going down the nick and Birmingham Council want to get rid of Erdington, they want it
00:41 to be absorbed into a place where they can guarantee that it's going to be a Labour council
00:48 not all the time, but Erdington doesn't. If Erdington returns to Conservative councillors,
00:55 I mean, whether you agree with them or not, that's beside the point. But it does, and
01:01 Birmingham City Council does not. Why doesn't Erdington ever return a Labour councillor?
01:08 Because it's useless. Birmingham don't want Erdington. Erdington is not wanted by the
01:18 council. They want to absorb us into another area.
01:22 I would say, I would never say the best things about here. That was 15 years ago, this place
01:28 was good. Right now it's not, where people are robbing the streets. Even the council
01:33 is not doing anything about it because they're actually dumbing everyone here, from straight
01:37 to Geldington Road. That's why you're getting the shoplifters, you're getting the bad people.
01:41 Here used to be people sit around, have a coffee, but we can't even do that anymore.
01:46 It's literally a very bad area. I would never recommend anyone to move here. I think it's
01:51 a great community spirit here. I've just been to the swimming baths for a swim and sauna,
01:58 etc. Great spirit community there. It's a bit untidy obviously, isn't it? It could do
02:05 with tidying up a little bit. And a lot of graffiti and that kind of thing, which do
02:11 with cleaning up also.
02:15 A few bulldozers wouldn't put it right. And basically, to see it in my eyes over the years,
02:22 and how it's became, no cleaning on the streets, the lighting, which isn't cut back anyway,
02:28 is poor. There's that many muggings, shoplifters are no problem. They're free. They run this
02:35 town now, the shoplifters and the criminals. So really, it's a free for all, but not for
02:39 the people who wish to come here because there's nothing here anymore.
02:44 I love it. People running down here. It's got its bad parts and good parts. Where I've
02:50 been to London, it's got its good parts and it's got its bad parts. So you just take it.
02:56 And the best part of Erdington is the Charlie Hall down Barnabus Road.
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