Well...... where are all the so called hard British bastards...... that are meant to........ never let the sun set on the British empire huh !!!!!!.. ....all these so called soccer hooligans !!!!!.......hard men ....... skinhead ......the NEDS .....the gangs ...... the so called real brits.!!!!!!......as far as i can see ........ nothing but dirty migrants have taken over the UK ......... its a fact...... it's not anything else ........ other than third world peasants........... they let in ....... in and the cops ...... the so called brits....... cops ........ spineless gutless pricks ....... bristh cops....... mostly married...... de nutted ....... fucking pussies....... siding with the migrants........... rather than the brits ......and the brits selling out to get migrants in their business........ dirty peasant backstabbing bastards!!!!!! ......its a fact ....... ........great britain is full of ignorant cunts......... useless cops ......... and dirty......... filthy ...... politicians .........who are sucking the money dick........ and brits are letting it happen ...... where is you back bone ........you gutless fucks .....shame om you UK .....great britain my ass .....you are affront to historical great ness ......and prince charles ........ he is fucking useless ...... weak old man......... doing fuck all about UK...... ........you deserve to fold like a cheap suit for being gutless........
Our village has become a ghost town with boarded up streets, machete thugs and druggies – we’ve been left behind
A COUPLE walk in silence along a rubbish strewn terrace of boarded up houses as a cold wind blows off the sea.
It’s mid-morning in Horden, County Durham, but the streets at the south end of the ex-mining village resemble a ghost town.
Doors and windows have been covered with plywood or, in a feeble attempt to disguise the fact they’re empty, pictures of blinds and curtains.
The sound of barking dogs and families arguing signal that some of the houses are still lived in, though the vast majority are uninhabited.
As she makes her way along the street with her partner, full time mum Zoe Bryan, 30, says: “Horden is a sh**hole.
“The best thing about it is it’s quiet, but that’s because no one lives here. The worst thing is there’s nothing for kids to do.
“I moved here for a fresh start, but it’s like a ghost town.”
Zoe says the area feels abandoned, and is in desperate need of services for children, like a park or kids’ play centre.
Even the nearby beach, she recalls, was “full of dog poo”, so she will not take her children there either.
“It’s quiet round here, because so many of the houses are empty, but at the other end of the village it’s horrible. It’s really rough,” Zoe adds.
“We’ve banned the kids from going there, it’s so bad. There’s lots of fighting, and it’s not safe.”
Durham County Council has ambitious plans to demolish Third and Fifth Street to make way for brand new two, three, and four-bed homes.
But as the council attempts to buy the houses from residents and landlords, and people stop moving in, a huge number of the properties are simply empty and have been left to rot.
Council chiefs admitted to The Sun the Horden is “not without its challenges” – but insisted they have a “masterplan” to regenerate the town.
A staggering 52 per cent of those living in the Horden and Dene House area are economically inactive meaning they are neither in work or education.
Meanwhile, the crime rate is 147 per 1000 residents, which is 78 per cent above the national average.
Durham Constabulary, however, told The Sun crime is improving in the area – with a 19 per cent drop since 2021.
Drugs have also blighted the area, with the head teacher of the Cotsford Primary School in Horden recently claiming kids are kept inside on hot days as the smell of cannabis coming from nearby houses is so strong.
Another resident said her and her family will soon be leaving the village as it doesn’t feel safe.
She adds: “Horden is horrible because of the people who live here.
“They don’t take care of the area, it’s neglected.
“Drugs are everywhere. We’re moving because of the problems.”
She says she has seen shocking levels of violent crime on the run-down streets, including “people throwing machetes at each other, and trying to stab each other”.
“It’s terrifying. We just close the curtains and try to shut it out,” Brooke says.
“I think the council needs to take better care of the area and the police should be doing more checks.”
Brooke says the cannabis problem is so bad in her town that she can spot which houses contain “drug farms” inside from which roofs snow melts on.
A stone’s throw from Horden, in nearby Peterlee, is the Castle Dene Shopping centre, home to discount shops such as Iceland, Peacocks and B&M.
Locals say the rundown complex, which proudly declares itself the “heart of Peterlee”, is a hotbed of shoplifting.
Mary Reynolds, 74, is a former shop assistant who worked at the Boots there before she retired.
Mary says the unemployment level is at a crisis point in Horden and Peterlee.
“There’s not a lot of money being spent in Horden and it shows,” she says.
“When I left school, there was no one who couldn’t get a job here.
“You left school, and got a job, and if you didn’t like it, you’d easily get another one. That’s not the case now.”
Horden was once a thriving mining community centred around its colliery, one of the largest in the UK, employing 4,500 people at its peak in the 1930s.
The National Coal Board provided miners with spacious two and three bed accommodation in the terraced houses, many of which have been boarded up, and left to decay.
When the pit shut in 1987, the village became a shadow of its former self and while the miners moved out, others made it their home, often attracted by cheap property.
Crime like shoplifting is a result of this social degradation, Mary said, with “brazen” thieves blighting the town’s shops.
“Shoplifting is rife and thieves are brazen about it. When I worked in Boots they would sweep all of the expensive creams into a bag and then run off into the dene. There’s nothing anyone can do about it” she says.
Support worker Ellie Gooch, 35, adds: “It’s horrible here. The people are hostile, especially if you look a bit different, like me.
“People’s attitudes are the worst thing, but the drugs are bad too.
“I was walking my four-year-old to school and I came across a bag of white powder on the floor. It’s not a friendly place at all.”
The average house price in Horden is just £65,000 while two beds can be rented for as little as £400 a month.
Locals claim there are posters close to Durham Prison, signposting ex-inmates to the village due to affordable accommodation.
Many of the properties are owned by private absentee landlords who live in other parts of the country.
Paula Armstrong, 55, who doesn’t work due to a disability, says: “The big issue is drugs. It’s horrible.
“The private landlords are putting scum in the houses.”
She says the newcomers moving into the available rental properties are “drug ridden, horrible people”.
Horden used to be “a lovely place”, she recalls. “But now, people are full of drugs and drink and they go shoplifting.”
“I’ve just seen someone steal from a charity shop. They go in and take what they want.”
Paula says she has heard reports of studio flats going for as little as £50 per week, as well as signs around Durham Prison advertising cheap rent in the town.
As a grandmother, she says she worries about the future for her 10-year-old granddaughter.
“I worry about her, and who she might knock around with, and will she go down the wrong path. Drugs are my biggest worry.”
Mike Allum, Durham County Council’s strategy and delivery manager, said: “We’re very ambitious about doing everything we can to make our council area a great place to live, work, visit and invest and that is why we have committed £10m, alongside the North East Combined Authority, for new housing in Horden.
“The masterplan aims to regenerate the village and improve life for local people by tackling challenges such as the high number of empty properties in the area owned by absentee landlords, paving the way for new council housing that is truly affordable.
“We recognise that Horden is not without its challenges, like a lot of places up and down the country, but we deliver various services in the community, including work to improve the appearance of the Numbered Streets.
“Our Horden Together team also runs various activities for local residents.”
A Durham Constabulary spokesman said: “As with all communities both locally and nationally, the east coast of County Durham faces a range of criminality from shoplifting and burglary to violent offences and antisocial behaviour.
“None of these crimes are welcome or tolerated, and the local Neighbourhood Policing Teams work tirelessly to prevent and detect them.
“One of the most important tools in tackling crime is – and has always been – the help and support of members of our communities, who are encouraged to get in touch with police as early as possible should they have any information relating to offences in their area.
“Through building strong relationships with residents, such as via initiatives like the Horden Together project, we have seen an increase in submissions of information, and an overall reduction in reported incidents and crimes.
“In Horden alone, there has been a nearly 19% reduction in reported incidents since 2021, and a 25% reduction in reports of antisocial behaviour since 2022. Detection rates have risen by nearly 8%.”
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