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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Adam May

Inside Britain's drug-plagued town with 'death row' high street ravaged by Covid

This is inside Britain's drug-plagued town where its main high street is dubbed "death row".

Sandwiched between the Irish Sea and the Lake District peninsula, Barrow in Cumbria, is considered to be one of the most deprived in the country by the Office of National Statistics.

In September 2020, Barrow Borough Council was among one of the first local authorities to declare a poverty emergency as the impact of Covid gripped the town.

Once a thriving shipbuilding coastal town, it has been hit hard by the cost of living crisis.

Shops and buildings lay boarded up and doused in graffiti, and furniture is dumped on streets in the hope someone might take it away, the Sun reports.

Over half of the town's central shopping street is boarded up while most windows are cracked with rubbish strewn across the floors inside.

Barrow has been hit hard by the cost of living crisis (North News & Pictures northnews.co.uk)

In 2018 - even before the Covid-19 pandemic and soaring costs of gas, electric, food and petrol - saw Barrow dubbed Britain's "most infamous brown town”.

On the streets, police continue to battle rampant drugs gangs and have likened the situation to "whack-a-mole".

One local resident James Richie has been out of work since the pandemic.

He and his partner Zoe Laurence, who works in Tesco, are new parents, and say they're worried and concerned about how they will make ends meet.

Police continue to battle drugs gangs in the town (North News & Pictures northnews.co.uk)

“There’s nothing else for kids to do around here but vandalise. It’s hard because there’s nowhere to go shopping. Maybe Manchester if you can afford it, but most can’t," said James.

One Poundland worker says the shop is one of the "worst place" she has ever worked, a label she does not use lightly as she adds the caveat that she has "worked in some grim places".

Another resident, who didn't want to be named because they work in education, said life in Barrow was tough enough before the cost of living squeeze, but now families continue to struggle even more.

While there is a strong community feel in parts, it doesn't touch the sides when it comes to alleviating financial worries, they claimed.

A fifth of Barrow's children live in poverty (North News & Pictures northnews.co.uk)

Barrow is the hometown of England Lioness Georgia Stanway, 23, a beacon of light and hope for the area after their Euros win this summer.

But last year, according to the End Child Poverty Coalition, a fifth of its kids were living in child poverty.

Figures show that one in 10 adults are unemployed while a quarter have no qualifications.

Almost 15 per cent of households are classed as being in fuel poverty, and with bills set to soar this winter that figure is likely to only go in one direction.

10% of adults are unemployed, says the latest data (North News & Pictures northnews.co.uk)

The lack of opportunity and job prospects there are also driving young people out of Barrow. Many feel they have no option but to leave.

In 2018 Barrow, which has a population of 67,000, had the ninth highest rate of deaths from opiates in England and Wales.

That was more than double the national average and, in 2020, The Sunday Times labelled it " the drugs capital of the north ", claiming people there were more likely to die from drugs than those in surrounding Manchester, Liverpool or Lancaster.

Drugs are smuggled into the town from Liverpool and Manchester (North News & Pictures northnews.co.uk)

Last year 12 people died of a drugs-related death and the year before it was 17, according to ONS figures.

Illegal substances, mainly crack cocaine and heroin, are smuggled up the coast from Liverpool and Manchester into the struggling town.

One mum said: "It's scary when you think about the younger people growing up here, there's nothing for them to go into. That's the reason teenagers are running riot the way they are. They have nothing else to do.

"They're all congregating in Barrow Park and there are reports that people are being attacked by them. It's just depressing."

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