Nottingham bleak and rundown, journalist claims
A JOURNALIST has been condemned for an article in a national magazine which criticises Nottingham as rundown and home to drug addicts and gun crime.
Robert Beaumont says in his article in The Spectator that Nottingham is "bleak", criticises its regeneration schemes and says no one wants to live in Radford, which is "a chilling example of the urban decay".
He adds St Ann’s, the Meadows, Bilborough, Basford and Broxtowe are "pockets of deprivation, crime, drug addiction and third-generation welfare dependency, where you can smell the stench of hopelessness."
The article also says there is a melancoly which hangs over the city and blames this directly on the miners' strike of 1984 and the subsequent closure of the pits.
Nottingham City Council has described the article as an "uninformed piece of jaundiced journalism".
Graham Chapman, the city council deputy leader, said: "He’s gone back as far as the 1990s for quotes, and is three years out with comments about guns as we haven’t had a shooting in the city for about two years.
"It refers to Nottingham as a northern town and calls Rushcliffe a suburb on Nottingham. The man is well out (with his facts)."
Mr Beaumont has defended the article.
He said: “Regeneration in the city centre, when compared to cities such as Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle, hasn’t been as imaginative as one would have hoped.”
Positive aspects mentioned in the article were the legacy of Brian Clough, the city centre’s retail hub and the work of the University of Nottingham.
“It is quite wrong to write Nottingham off completely,” Mr Beaumont said.
The journalist also called for a monument to Boots founder Jesse Boot to be installed near his first premises in Goose Gate.
What do you think of the article? Join the debate below.
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by sheryl, strelley
Tuesday, December 16 2008, 12:44AM
“i agree with the journalist yes notts is a dive but there are good people here i grown up at bestwood they knocked padstow down which was a good school in a way 2 over crowd other schools for what ???? and as for broxtowe yes there is stabbing car theft burglarys youth on corners burnt out car all because the kids have nowhere 2 go and nothing 2 do as funding is low in the community my estate was once called crack alley all because of drug dealers they have gone but still need more cctv as yes there is still some but no 1 will tell if community got 2gether and put there head 2gether then notts would be a better place stand up and get rid of the rif raf”
by pete, Red Deer AB
Monday, December 15 2008, 2:53PM
“you should all thank the council and all the social engineers , no need to spend hard earned money and fly to jamaica to witness the low lifes in action .
labour has saved you al that money by bringing the yardies to your doorstep , look how enriched your lives have become .”
by Mr B J Mann, Nottingham
Saturday, December 13 2008, 2:13PM
“Or to use your phrase, they were:
"asking for it"
.
And I suppose the same goes for girls who get shot.
.”
by Mr B J Mann, Nottingham
Saturday, December 13 2008, 2:11PM
“Ahhhhhhhh, so any woman who gets raped in Nottigham brought it on herself, Seb!”
by Seb, Wollaton
Saturday, December 13 2008, 10:30AM
“No, I think he EXPECTED to be attacked in Nottinham, so he was”
by Mr B J Mann, Nottingham
Friday, December 12 2008, 10:33PM
“In the defence of Nottingham Seb sed:
In all honesty Stuart, if I'd been attacked on NUMEROUS occasions I would honestly start to wonder if I was giving out some kind of 'victim' vibe. Once,unfair, twice,very unfair,numerous!
Do you wear a T Shirt with 'victim' on the front?
Or are you projecting such hostility that it is picked up by potentially aggressive people?
I'll answer your next question
"Are you saying I'm asking for it?'
Well maybe chuck, just maybe!
Seb, are you saying that in all the lots of other places, not all of them in the UK, that he's never felt as unsafe walking down a street at night in as he does here, including walking around Oakland, California, he had a different perosnality?
Or do you just think he'd changed his T-shirt!”
by john, clifton
Friday, December 12 2008, 9:03PM
“TRUTH HURTS DOESN' IT...HE'S RIGHT, TAKE A GOOD LUCK AT THIS DECLINING CITY...ADMIT IT TO OURSELVES AND THEN WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT”
by The Equaliser, Elysian Fields
Friday, December 12 2008, 8:25PM
“Equaliser 2
THANKS . . . They do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
by The Equaliser, Elysian Fields
Friday, December 12 2008, 8:23PM
“A bit unfair your comments, Equaliser 2.
You appear to have sussed out my present place of abode . . . time for me to assume another identity I think!
I can assure you that the only people I look down on are generally so high in their own opinion that it is no mean feat to even attempt it.
Ruddington is no pleasure dome. I had a slab of concrete thrown through a front window not so long ago when my son shouted from his bedroom window at a group of louts breaking into my car outside on the drive.
We have our share of the modern blight. And I did say that it was spreading.”
by Equaliser 2, Halcyon Fields
Friday, December 12 2008, 8:11PM
“No Fred, they were thrown from a top window by some very drunken kids, I kid you not. They,ve got quite serious problems with drunken teenagers but the equaliser likes to look down on people so he never mentions it”