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<\/p>\nA housing estate described as the \u201croughest in the UK\u201d has dead rats in playgrounds and threatening locals.<\/p>\n
YouTuber UK Explored took a trip to Walsall in the West Midlands and was terrified by what he found. \u201cHonestly, it scared me,\u201d were the words of the channel\u2019s narrator, as he talked through his visit to the market town\u2019s Blakenall Heath area. Some 400 crimes are thought to be committed there, with 2022 data from Crime Rate claiming that Walsall has a crime rate of 151 per 100,000 residents, roughly double the national average.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before he had an encounter with a local. \u201cThe moment I walked into Dawson Street and filmed the street sign a woman told me to f-off and then she started making a call on her phone and I heard her say \u2018they\u2019re filming right now, come and see.\u2019 I didn\u2019t want to find out who she was calling so I made a quick exit. As you saw, there\u2019s boarded up houses, junk everywhere and it probably is as bad as the media is making out.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The footage doesn\u2019t make for pleasant viewing, with a dead rat, crumbling homes and boarded-up shops making up the majority of what you see. Everywhere he looked, the signs of urban decay were there to see. <\/p>\n
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It\u2019s not all bad, however, with house prices sitting at an average of \u00a3168,0000 for the wider ward, and substantially lower than the national average of \u00a3288,000. The clip\u2019s evidence might have some way of explaining why that was the case.<\/p>\n
He noted that he had looked up the news in the area as part of his trip there, and what he saw matched up neatly. \u201cThere were stories about the general antisocial behaviour there, people being shot at, children tearing up pigeons and throwing them into the chippie. Yep. And a young kid was blinded after being stabbed last year. So wow is all I can really say to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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He added: \u201cMy parting thoughts on Blakenall is that it felt dangerous, it smelt dangerous and I was happy to move on to the next area.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Express recently, Walsall\u2019s Local Police commander, Chief Superintendent Phil Dolby said: \u201cWe know things are not perfect and more work needs to be done, involving all partners, for the communities we serve. Our teams are working tirelessly and often long hours to help deal with the issues that matter most to residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
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He also noted: "We have permanently based more officers in Blakenall and have seized more than 40 bikes this year that were being ridden illegally… A number of injunctions have been served against problem tenants. We also carry out regular patrols and host pop up police surgeries to address concerns raised by residents. We have issued civil warnings and have arrested people for breaches of those orders.<\/p>\n
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