We [charity] moved here a few years ago. I suppose what I’ve noticed is how much derelict space there is. . . There’s a big care home that’s closed down in the last six months, it’s all boarded up and it’s next to a big bit of derelict grounds that no-one’s doing anything with, it’s just an overgrown jungle. . . there’s lots of big gaps, it’s like teeth have fallen out. And there’s lots of old buildings that are looking derelict. . . So, to me, it feels like it’s getting a bit more empty, things have closed. . . it still feels, there’s a lot of tumbleweed areas. . . there’s a lot of rubble, and things have been flattened and haven’t been cleared away very well. . . That must have an impact on children and families growing up in the area.

There’s so much spare ground in West Tunbrooke, there’s so many places that are dilapidated. . . only recently I’ve seen new houses go up. It was as if they were ripping everything down for ages and not putting anything up. There was so much spare ground. Ripped down the high school, primary schools, ripped down the special needs school, ripped down the community centre. And it was just as if they weren’t building anything in its place for a long time. . . It does just look kind of forgotten about. It looks as if no-one is putting the effort in to make it look better. . . It feels like it’s just spare ground everywhere. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy: we think that people think it’s bad, so we think it’s bad, so nobody really bothers to do anything about it. (Maria)

The [empty houses] along here, their windows are all smashed so, somebody like yourself that’s not from Tunbrooke, to walk down the street, it looks rough. . . this place could be better.

The drugs started. . . you had been finding needles everywhere at one point. . . they’re all intae [taking] the tablets now. . . you see people in their 40s and 50s in wheelchairs [and] walking sticks.

[Drugs are] the worst thing about [living] here, they’re everywhere. . . Aye. I’d say that’s the worst out of everything, out of all the gangs and all of that, [it’s] the drugs. . . it’s not as if it would be hard to, like, try and get a hold of, like, green and Valium and all of that, they all take it now. . . Like, smack and everything, anything you wanted, just, just definitely, so, you could go along Main Street [pseudonym] and get it.

Obviously the increase in drugs in the community. . . alcoholism’s increased. . . increased selling drugs on territory. Ah think that’s more prevalent in the community now than actual gang fighting.

Tunbrooke doesn’t have much to offer. The only draw I’ve got is my family is close by. There is no opportunity for jobs, you have to commute. . . It drives people away. . . there is no opportunities. There’s no industry that Tunbrooke is right on, supplying workers. It is a place that there isn’t really any community infrastructure. . . So a lot is, the working generation are moving on from the place.

There isn’t enough opportunity, generally, for anyone of working age. And again, it goes back to that [lack of] investment. The community’s been forgot about. There is very little opportunity for employment.

There’s no opportunity for them [school-leavers]. . . There’s not really any working facilities here, ye’d need to go outside Tunbrooke. There’s the industrial estate, but there’s very few things in there now. . . You need to travel. And to travel, you need to have money.

To be fair to people that get involved in low level crime, if you’ve got a choice of sitting without any power and food, or doing something about it, I don’t blame them for doing something about it. It’s logic, I’d hate to think what I would do if faced with that. You either die, or you do something about it.

There’s too many people out there on the border of the poverty line that will take the wee fiver (£5) here or there, their mum and dad might be struggling. We don’t know the ins and outs of it. . . Some can earn anywhere between £50 and £150 a day. You’re talking about a 14-15 year old. That’s more than a good job [pays].

I remember meeting a wee guy, he was about 6 or 7, who used to spend him nights on Main Street, directing people to the houses to buy drugs. . . And that was his opportunity to make money, he’d get five pound here or there. His mother was an alcoholic, his dad wasn’t there, he had a wee brother and sister, he was making the money. . . There’s young people getting pressured ino it, there’s opportunity to make money. I’ve offered young people apprenticeships, and they say ‘you’re offering £120 a week when ah can make £100 in an hour on the street’.

[Teenagers] probably think ‘why would you want to go to a job that pays half the money if you can only stand along there and make double it in one day and you’re not really doing anything, you’re just standing about’. . . I work and I’m (poor) all the time. . . if I didn’t have this job I’d probably have done it, to get money.

When you’re living hand to mouth, it’s tough being from an area where there’s no opportunity. You don’t really realise it until you’re older that there isn’t the opportunity to move up in society, there’s no upward social mobility. People just do what they can to get by. And folk just get put down, when you’re so close to [neighbouring affluent area] and, ye could drive to the supermarket there and ye drive past fancy houses, flash cars and ye think, well, why should I not have that?

‘West Tunbrooke’s a bywater, there’s no through traffic. If you’re in West Tunbrooke, you’re either visiting somebody or doing something you shouldn’t be. You don’t go to West Tunbrooke to socialise.’

There is some level of stigma, because the press is always full of the negative stories. . . I think people do feel the stigma of that. . . it’s an easy sell to say there was a drugs raid in Tunbrooke. . . [people reading these stories think] ‘oh well, that’s just Tunbrooke’.

It’s not helpful when you see murders, gang fights on the front page [of newspapers]. . . it’s very difficult to get other groups to come into the area, based on the reputation. . . it’s not just crime, it’s incomes, health. . . other groups know that the area has a reputation, and they won’t come in.

I’ve seen so many people donating food in this area. [There are] a lot of good people, that don’t have much, they’ll find a wee bit to give. There’s a woman about half a mile away, walks up here with a shopping trolley, she’s about 80, to drop off a couple of tins. That’s there.

I think people are more involved in the community as well, people are more involved. There’s certain people standing up and saying they want better. . . There’s some individuals do take it on. My papa campaigned a lot, was on the community council. . . See to be fair, I think it’s getting better.

There’s a lot of brilliant work, brilliant people, but you never hear that good news story. . . And, as much as there are issues going on in the community, it is a thriving community. . . I could quite easily have left, and went to live somewhere else. But I chose not to.

[When] you’re from a scheme, you’re starting from nothing, your ma and dad don’t own businesses. I take pride in where I come from. I’m the first to say it’s a shitehole. But it’s my shitehole. You walk about and ye know the people in the street, half of the families, and you can go and have conversations with them. So you can take pride, but you have to take it the other way as well, that this place could be better.