Our once-thriving village is now a ghost town – we’ve been neglected and we’re in desperate need of help

RESIDENTS of a once-thriving village says it is now a "ghost town" which desperately needs help.

Kingshurst, a village near Solihull in Birmingham, is strewn with fly-tipped waste, graffiti and boarded-up shops after buildings were demolished to make way for a new redevelopment.

Many local homes are now empty and sealed off behind yellow construction fences.

Although residents hope that building 78 new homes will revive the area, some want the construction to be over and done with.

Local Cheryl Bojarksi told : "It needs better housing and better shops to make the area look more decent.

"Years ago when I first moved here it used to be lovely but over time it has changed. It does look run-down now.

"We have waited long enough now for this to happen. It has just gone on and on.

Her mother Gwendoline McManus, who grew up in Kingshurst, said: "When I was younger I watched it all be built up and now I'm watching it come back down to the ground."

Fellow resident Rachel Cole said: "There was a rumour going around they had run out of money.

"The plans have changed so many times and people just want it done now.

"They're going to paint everything white and try and make it look a bit brighter and a bit more inviting because at the moment it doesn't look great."

It comes after residents of an idyllic seaside resort were devastated after it became a "ghost town" with empty bars and derelict shops.

Brean in Somerset is dominated by the giant Pontins Holiday Park, but this year thousands of holidaymakers will be missing.

For the next three years, the camp will be taken over by construction workers at the nearby Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

Locals in Nottinghamshire are also fuming after their "amazing" town centre became a wasteland strewn with litter, pigeon waste and cracked paving.

Two villages have also been ghost towns for decades after locals were forced to flee 80 years ago.

Residents of Imber and Tyneham were ordered to evacuate in 1943 as Salisbury Plain was taken over by troops preparing for D-Day.