Welcome to Whitehaven; a place in The Lake District’s shunned borderlands where residents, workers and visitors are all left to rot in a town reminiscent of some third world favela. A cursory walk around the town, which should be an idyllic seaside town, and the decay and filth that defines Whitehaven is ever present. From dog waste which coats the streets like icing on a wedding cake, to litter in the parks and on the pavements in plain sight and squeezed meticulously into every nook and cranny, to dreary looking zombified people of drugged up extraction. Yes, this is Whitehaven.
A quick hop, skip and a jump across the discarded hypodermic needles leads you through housing association properties left to fire damage and decay by the “charities” that run them – bogged down by wage-takers and Costa coffee guzzlers and hiding behind the huge floundering dinosaur that masques their smug Schadenfreude. This is no match made in heaven. We need change.
Propped up by antidepressants and the most favourable summer for years locals sit out the misery, hoping for a better day – beyond the litter, beyond the anti-social behaviour, beyond the drugs dealing, beyond the mocking housing associations who have turned doing nothing into an art form and beyond the frustration delivered by an inept local council. We need action.
Dogged down by tight budgets, a motley crew of locals and the nincompoopery of housing associations and local councils, the police do what they can to serve a community who has lost its way, lost its pride and lost its community spirit.
This is Whitehaven. We need change. We need action. We need it now.
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