SWNS
Residents living on ‘Britain’s roughest street’ say it’s full of kids being stabbed and drug addicts everywhere
Residents say they fear the ‘roughest street in Britain’ full of £5 prostitutes, teenagers being stabbed and drug addicts ‘everywhere’. Slade Road in Stockland Green, Birmingham, is said to be a hotbed of violence and drugs which has been on the rise for the past few years. Locals say they are too afraid to go out after dark after numerous attacks, street robberies and drug dealing, which continue even in daylight. People say they are also being approached by cut-price sex workers who ply their trade along the street for as little as a fiver. Parents are forced to drop off their children directly at the school gates and business owners are taken to the post office for fear of having their money stolen. Residents also say that ‘zombiefied’ drunks and drug addicts are always roaming the streets and that people are too scared to visit the shops alone during the day. They say the problem has worsened over the past decade and police are rarely seen on the street, known as ‘Britain’s roughest’. Mum-of-two Round, 69, says she has seen the street decline for seven years working in a cafe at Stockland Green Methodist Church on Slade Road. She said: “I’ve been working in the community cafe for about seven years and the road has gotten progressively worse. “People usually hang around the street and sit in the doorways and you feel that nervousness when you walk down it, and it feels like a very sad place. “I feel safe during the day, but if I were to walk down at night, I don’t think I would feel safe. “People hang around the shops and the post office and I know this makes people afraid to go out and do their shopping. “There are two schools nearby and I know parents drop their kids off at the middle school, so they don’t get involved with drugs. “It happens in broad daylight and parents worry that their children will fall into it. “You don’t see the police here very often, which is worrying. “People are coming to the community cafe emotionally damaged from all the drugs and drinking they’ve taken, and we don’t know who to call. “It can be quite distressing and we are not professionally trained to deal with this.” A woman who worked in a corner shop on the street, who wished to remain anonymous, said business had declined because of the bad reputation of the street. She said: “This problem has been getting worse over the last decade. “There are drunk people and people doing drugs all over the place and they also sell the drugs in broad daylight and something needs to be done. “It’s getting out of control and people are afraid to come out, which affects the businesses. “People can’t come out to do their shopping because they are afraid of being ambushed and they can’t do their daily tasks. “If they go and get money out of the post office, they are afraid it will be taken. “The situation is very bad. We’ve had to escort people to the post office in the past to get their money out, so they don’t get attacked.” Another local man, who wished to remain anonymous, added: “You’ve got to know your wits around here. “The kids are stabbing each other, I’ve heard about the £5 prostitutes and it’s the roughest street in town. It’s Britain, but so will the story. a badge of honor for fools. “The police hardly show their face here either, you can’t walk along the street without being offered sex or drugs. “It’s like being in Amsterdam – but a million times shadier. I like to think I can look after myself but I don’t even bother going out after dark now.” As recently as January 19, police raided a huge cannabis factory along Slade Road, which led to the discovery of £200,000 worth of Yazir Mehmood, owner of Yaz Barbers, said that people who were using weeds in the street and the smell coming into his shop The 38-year-old said: “I’ve owned the barbers for 10 years and during that time the road has deteriorated. On the street in broad daylight there are always lots of drunks and people dealing drugs.” “People smoke weed all the time outside my bars and the smell comes into the shop and it’s horrible. don’t feel safe on the street like this when more people are drinking and doing drugs.” Pet shop owner Monica Phillips, 72, has run Birmingham Reptiles on Slade Road for 26 years and believes the issue is about the people living in the HMOs. “We had a break-in a few months back and we were lucky they were on CCTV but the police didn’t want to find out. go down the back road about it.” The problem surely lies within the HMOs and all the new faces coming through this part of Birmingham because of them. of customers saying they are scared when they visit the store. “For the last few years there have been stabbings and muggings on this road. “Since taking over this shop 26 years ago, things have definitely gone from bad to worse.”