Inside drug-plagued town where high street dubbed ‘death row’ & police say tackling rampant gangs is like ‘whack-a-mole’

"Welcome to Hell" one resident shouts as he takes his baby son out for a stroll around Barrow Island in coastal Barrow-in-Furness.

Surveying the boarded-up, graffitied building and a nearby pile of broken furniture, it's a sad indictment of a once bustling shipbuilding hub.

Nestled between the Irish Sea and the Lake District peninsula, the Cumbrian town is classed as one of the most deprived in England by the Office of National Statistics.

Decimated by the devastating impact of Covid and the cost of living crisis, Barrow Borough Council was one of the first local authorities to declare a poverty emergency in September 2020 - and since then things have gone from bad to worse.

More than half its central shopping street is boarded up, and many of the windows that remain are cracked - offering a splintered view of graffiti, broken fire extinguishers and rubbish strewn inside abandoned shops.

Meanwhile police continue to battle rampant drugs gangs which in 2018 earned Barrow the unfortunate accolade of Britain’s "most infamous brown town”.

While visiting as part of The Sun's Broke Britain series, where we visit towns struggling to survive during the cost of living crisis, Barrow Island resident James Riche tells us: “Covid hit the town centre hard. I call it death row because so many of the shops are shut and boarded up. We avoid it.

“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.”

James, who has been out of work since the pandemic, and partner Zoe Laurence, who works in Tesco, are new parents, and admit they're worried about how they'll make ends meet as the cost of living rises. 

She says: “I can’t really plan because things change so quickly. It’s so hard to keep up with everything, so we just take it day by day and manage as best we can.”

Walking through the town there's a hopeful busker singing in front of a smashed-up shop which used to house Thorntons.

Poundland worker Becca says Barrow is the "worst place" she's ever worked - and she's "worked in some grim places". 

She says: “Past a certain point everything is boarded up and the windows are smashed. 

“Even Poundland, which isn’t empty, has been targeted by vandals and has had signs and windows put through that need to be repaired. 

“Nothing is being done to make the town look less run down. Since Covid and Debenhams closing, everything has just gone downhill.

It's the worst place I've ever worked - and I've worked in some grim places

Becca, Poundland employee

"I’ve been here for five years and there are less and less people coming into town.” 

Another resident, who didn't want to be named because they work in education, tells us: “Things in Barrow were tough before prices started rising. Families are going to struggle even more than they have before. 

“There’s a really big community here but it can only go so far. How the town centre looks just shows how hard things are hitting the people here. 

“It’s really sad. Without more help I worry for the people that call here home. For many, there is no way out.

"Jobs are scarce and it’s no surprise people are turning to other means to try and cope with what's happening. It’s awful to see.”

Fifth of kids in poverty

It’s a stinging endorsement for the hometown of England Lioness Georgia Stanway, 23, which last year saw a fifth of its kids living in child poverty, according to the End Child Poverty Coalition.

One in 10 adults are unemployed, a quarter have no qualifications, and almost 15 per cent of households are classed as being in fuel poverty.

All that remains of Barrow's shipping industry is BAE Systems, which manufactures nuclear submarines - but that alone cannot keep the economy afloat.

Resident Joanne Jackson says: “It’s scary to be here because nothing seems to be going forward.

“There’s nothing going on. There are no shops left. BAE can only provide so many jobs and people having to claim benefits are not going to be able to afford gas, eclectic and food. 

“The situation here is getting really bad - then add in the vandalism on top, no one wants to stay here. 

The situation here is getting really bad - then add in the vandalism on top, no one wants to stay here

Joanne Jackson, Barrow resident

“Even those with jobs are struggling to make ends meet.”

One ray of light is the town's community shop, Barrow's Well Fed Community Grocers, which opened its doors in 2018 and sells healthy food, bought from wholesalers and supermarkets, at an affordable price for low-income families.

Profits are used to restock supplies and any surplus is used to fund The Well, a drug and alcohol service.

Since the pandemic, footfall has increased dramatically and it now hands out vouchers to those who need the most help. 

'Forced to leave'

The lack of opportunity is driving young people out of Barrow. One teenager, Amy, admits she feels she has no alternative.

She said: "It's really s**t. It's just bad. There's going to be nothing left at all soon.

"Kids that are leaving school aren't going to be able to get anything. I've been here my whole life but I feel like now I have no option but to leave. There's nothing to do here."

Her parents echo her fears and raise concerns about gangs of youths running riot.

Dad Jason says: "It's the kids who are doing a lot of the damage. They're bored. They've gone through phases of smashing windows, then doing graffiti somewhere else."

It's the kids who are doing a lot of the damage. They're bored

Jason, Barrow resident

Mum Susan adds: "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."

UK's 'brown town'

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

Two years later The Sunday Times labelled it "the drugs capital of the north", claiming people here were more likely to die from drugs than those in surrounding Manchester, Liverpool or Lancaster.

Last year 12 people died of a drugs-related death; 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. 

Detective Superintendent Dean Holden, Cumbria’s head of crime, tells us it's like "whack-a-mole" trying to rid the area of county lines operations. 

He says: "I think we have been successful in disrupting a lot and we've had a lot of good convictions. In north Cumbria we had a county lines group receive jail sentences totalling nearly 90 years.

"But one of our issues is the speed at which people set up new lines. It's like these whack-a-mole games at Blackpool - as soon as we hit one, there are others popping up.”

Strolling through residential streets there are more boarded-up buildings, piles of rubbish on the streets and a pocket of fly-tipped furniture.

Amy, from Manchester, moved here as her partner has a job at BAE, but "didn't expect things to be so bad".

"Obviously, I can get a three-bed house here for the price of a flat in Manchester," she says.

"But there's nowhere for anyone to go. I try not to go out really."