“We’re too embarrassed to say we live here,” say locals in the “dead” Yorkshire town

“It’s a *** hole – that’s your title.”

The people of Dewsbury are not known for mincing their words and local Vicky, 50, is brutally honest in her assessment of the current state of the town centre.

Apart from Elegance Nails, a nail and beauty salon in Market Place where she is a client, Vicky can’t think of anything else worthy of praise. She admits she is too ashamed to tell people where she is from.

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She jokes that I might be “pitched” if I stray down the wrong lane and says: “Dewsbury is rough now. It started to decline about 20 years ago. My mother-in-law doesn’t come down – she’s too scared. She is 77 years old and is concerned about groups of young people drinking and fighting.

Vicky, of Hanging Heaton, Dewsbury, says there is a culture of street drinking in the town center which the authorities are turning a blind eye to. “I’ve seen the police drive past them while they’re drinking. They don’t do anything.”

She was born and bred in Dewsbury but says she only ventures into town once every two weeks. “It’s very sad, but it’s the same all over England, in all cities.”

Vicky believes some locals stay away from the city center because of the “undesirables”. She wants to see a greater police presence to keep people calm. A few more shops might tempt people back, but in recent weeks the town center has lost Peacocks and a discount supermarket called Quality Save.

“If Peacocks was still here, I’d be there,” she said. “For clothes I’d go to the White Rose center in Leeds.”

She is saddened by the disappearance of her city. “Dewsbury was one of the nicest towns around. I don’t tell people I’m from Dewsbury. I am ashamed”.

Christine Dawson was on her way to a coffee shop when Yorkshire Live he caught up with her downtown. She said, “It’s nothing. Peacocks closed, Quality Save closed and some pubs, although I don’t drink.

“I don’t think the town center is going to go back to where it was. It’s gone too far downhill. Young people are moving to Scarborough and where the jobs are. If I’m not on my scooter (she uses an electric scooter for mobility) I go to Morley, who is very busy, or at Wakefield.”

Christine likes one place and that is Town Cafe which is famous for fresh coffee and Turkish style food.

Mohammed, 52, a stockbroker waiting for a lift at the refurbished Dewsbury station, said the town center had become “worse” in the past month due to the subsequent closure of shops. The lack of shops is not good for community cohesion, he says, because it destroys the sense of community and reduces interactions between people.

“Shopping is great for meeting up with friends. What we need is a serious study of why the stores closed and how to reopen them.”

Michael Rycraft, a retired maths lecturer, is a little more optimistic about Dewsbury’s future, preferring to see the glass half full rather than half empty.

He is aware of various regeneration schemes, some of which are supported by Kirklees Council, and says there are still some decent retailers and cafes around.

“Dewsbury has some wonderful buildings; some were well maintained and some were not. There’s a sense of history and it’s easy to get to on highways or in the countryside. And there are plenty of places to go for coffee during the day. I would say there has been some improvement, although there is a feeling that Kirklees are spending the money on Huddersfield.

At Dewsbury Market, the remaining traders are still waiting for delayed redevelopment plans to go ahead.

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Claire, who runs her family’s confectionery company Toffee Smiths, which has a stall at the market, said: “Unfortunately, Dewsbury is not the town it used to be. It will take a long time, if ever, to fix it.”

In the Town Cafe, it was busy with customers on Friday afternoon, some enjoying frothy coffee on the tables outside.

Cafe customer Hanifa described Dewsbury as a “total mess”, adding: “It looked better in 1824 than 2024. It needs a lot of work. The people of Dewsbury saw no benefit from their taxes. There are too many gambling shops and we have seen closure after closure of shops.”