We live in one of England’s WORST towns – it’s a lawless hellhole rife with dangerous criminals… we’re terrified
RESIDENTS of a city voted one of the worst in England say it’s rife with crime and violent gangs.
Bradford, West Yorks, was savaged in an online poll released last week as being riddled with drug crime and career criminals.
Despite boasting a university and stunning city centre architecture, some locals said the best thing they could say about the place was how quickly you could get to Leeds and Manchester.
In the shadow of the grade II listed 19th Century city hall – recently visited by King Charles – people can be seen openly drinking booze and taking drugs.
And in the city’s notorious Holme Wood housing estate, locals said bus and taxi drivers daren’t venture down certain streets for fear of attacks from feckless youths.
Speaking under the condition of anonymity, one local said of the poll: “I’m surprised it wasn’t higher.
“I’d rate it in the top five. I’ve moved around the country and there are some rough places, but it is bad here. It’s lawless.”
Several taxi companies have listed the estate as a ‘no-go’ area are drivers were left with black eyes, while others were subjected to being harassed for money after their windows were smashed in by yobs throwing bricks.
During the afternoon, young men could be seen roaming the estate on horseback, while a large pile of rubbish lies burnout on a field near a children’s play park.
The man added: “A CCTV camera has been installed in the bus stop because it’s always vandalised. It’s only been in a few days and it’s been vandalised as well.
“Every taxi I get, the drivers refuse to go straight into the estate. Gangs of yobs will stand on the street corner and throw bricks at cars.
“One guy got out of the car and got a baseball bat out, then some youths came down with a sledgehammer.
“It has its eruptions. Violence is a regular occurrence. The police turn up and they all scarper.
“They’ve got no chance of catching them, because they know all the alleyways and shortcuts that police cars can’t get down and they’re gone.”
Pockets of the 1950s housing estate are in the top 5% and 1% of the Governments Index of Deprivation, but not everybody felt unsafe in the area.
Nigel Wood, who runs the local chippy, said he was proud to be from Bradford and disagreed with the city’s spot in the top 10.
Nigel, 50, said: “It’s a bit rough and ready, but I’ve always lived in Bradford and I’ve lived in this estate for most of my life.
“The people are nice in Bradford and it’s the people that make the city. The community spirit is there.”
In the city centre, which was blasted in the poll as being full of fast food outlets and ‘the local junkie desperate for his next fix’, police could be seen speaking to those drinking in public.
Student Kennedy Kandjii, 31, said: “There’s nothing really happening. It needs a glow up.
“I’d go to Leeds for shopping and Manchester is only 40 minutes away, so that’s good.”
A midwifery student who identified herself only as Dua, 21, said she had a friend who was stabbed to death in the city centre a couple of years ago.
But she insisted she didn’t feel unsafe walking through the city centre, adding: “I got a lot of offers from around the country, but I chose Bradford because of the social deprivation here. They actually help people here.
“I feel safe here, I can walk through the city centre. I’ve never felt unsafe, but I do know what goes on. My friend got stabbed to death two years ago.”
In the city’s Ravenscliffe estate, another area blighted by anti-social behaviour and where bus companies regularly pull from routes, horses can be seen tied to trees.
Local Brian Vinn, 56, who has lived in the street for 15 years, said: “I think 10th is about right. Everywhere has bad places, it’s just that I live in one.
“Buses were stopped coming on the street because they were getting stoned, taxis were stopped. Every now and again, it’ll flare up.
“You have young kids and they get to around 21, they get money and they buy quad bikes and they come whizzing down the street on them.
“It gets bad in the summer, you get kids causing trouble on the estate and we have the police here every couple of days, but they haven’t got a prayer. They won’t catch people.”