where I live is becoming a slum

The area I live in was never great but when I first moved in it was fine. An area of cheap housing, speculative build in the 1930's, lots of terraced housing. A working class area with a history of migrants, Jewish families originally but then Sikhs and Pakistanis and a fair number of Irish. It was pleasant enough and friendly.

It has been deteriorating for years and I would love to have moved but we have never had any money so it was never an option, but the last couple of years have seen the area become a slum. The numbers of eastern Europeans is ridiculous! They seem to have families in double figures and the children all seem to live on the streets, even using them as toilet areas! The men congregate outside the bookies and pawnbrokers on the lane and the women shuffle around with children and mobile phones.

The back lane is getting to look more and more like the photos of slums in the early years of last century with young girls carrying even younger siblings around and toddlers out on the streets till late every night. The clothes have changed but the children haven't.

My youngest...who did live in a real slum before he came to live with us...complains all the time about the rubbish and how much he wants to move out the area! I am totally with him but its not going to happen, we still have no money and even if we did we are now too old for a new mortgage.

As a grandchild of economic migrants I have no real issue with people moving for jobs but the people coming seem to have no jobs, certainly they seem to be hanging around all day so I'm not sure when they are working, if they are! They seem to be living of benefits and that is wrong, for so many reasons and helps no one. The children don't seem to be in school all the time...not all cultures value education and the current migrants into the area seem to be ambivalent about education at best.

Not sure what the future holds but its not good, certainly not for my daughter as she gets increasingly ill. All the noise of children on the streets till late is not pleasant for any of us but actively dangerous for her and it does seem as though the scummier the children the louder they are!

And no, I don't think UKIP are a good idea...I just don't like migrants that have no respect for the area they live in, and those who don't work show little respect for themselves.