A UK estate has been tarnished with the reputation of being rife with anti-social behaviour and crime, causing old people to dread leaving the house at night.
In late October, a betting shop window was smashed in The Willows, Grimsby in broad daylight.
The area surrounding Wingate Parade and the neighbouring roads was investigated to understand if such a shocking incident reflected the amount of crime and anti-social behaviour in the area, or if it was a one-off.
Ann, 62, and Sandra, 78, were outside a pharmacy when Grimsby Live interviewed them.
Ann said: "It has increased. It will come down and then we get another spate of it."
She felt the problem was not helped by the lack of activities for young people.
She added: "There's naff all fro them to do - so of course they congregate in the precinct. It's just a desolate area at night."
Looking at shop units which she believed had been empty for at least three years, she said at night time "old people don't come out".
The pair reported that youths regularly gathered to sit outside the shop units when night fell and felt more activities for kids might make an impact.
A shop worker in the area did not think more shops or activities was the answer to the problem, largely because she seemed to think adults were likely the culprits.
"It's nothing to do with kids," she said. She was also firm that the smashed window incident was "unusual".
"There was the odd bit of vandalism," she said, not a pattern of increased issues.
This was in contrast to a male staff member at another shop a few doors away.
"Too much crime at the moment," he said. "No one doing f****in' anything about it. It's the worst it's ever been."
He called for a hardline approach on anyone caught.
There might be a need for more activities for young people, but he highlighted bin fires that occurred in the nearby park over a year ago.
Like Ann and Sandra, he also claimed that two CCTV poles sited at different ends of Wingate Parade had not been working "for years".
The poles appeared to have a surveillance camera each on them, though the angles of the cameras were not well-positioned to cover the parade area itself.
Andrew, in his 50s and walking along a side road, was less concerned about a possible increase in anti-social behaviour and crime.
"Youths being youths. I'm glad that window smashing didn't hurt anyone though no idea if that was a kid too."
For him, his immediate issue was graffiti. "I hate the graffiti, it makes the area look bad."
Across the borough, the council along with its regeneration partner EQUANS is putting in place a £2.2mn CCTV network system.
It will create a single digital transition network, allowing public space CCTV as well as the monitoring of rapid deployment cameras for enforcing parking rules.
The work will also speed up considerably police access to the public space CCTV when needed to investigate incidents.
It was due for completion by January 2023, but it is understood to be set to potentially be finished a month early.
Humberside Police continue to appeal for anyone with possible information in relation to the smashed window incident in Wingate Parade to come forward: "If anyone has information regarding this, you can contact us on 101, quoting log 108 of 26 October."
Meanwhile, Cllr Steve Holland, Independent, is one of Freshney Ward's three representatives heard about the betting shop window incident.
He said he accepted that the borough as a whole had an issue with anti-social behaviour. "I mean the anti-social behaviour is always sort of there in the background.
"What there needs to be is more activities for teenagers on The Willows estate."
He said this was just starting to get coordinated across agencies and organisations, including Active Humber.
He added he was hopeful that this would lead to a change.
Overall, while opinions did vary, there was generally in the Wingate Parade area of The Willows a consensus in favour of some kind of greater action to tackle the issue of anti-social behaviour and crime.
But there was considerable disagreement over exactly what form of action should be taken.
