TOWN AND OUT
Our seaside town was once paradise but now it’s a forgotten booze-ridden hellhole… it’s so bad it’s known as ‘St Awful’
LOCALS have slammed their once paradise seaside town for becoming a booze-ridden hellhole now nicknamed "St Awful".
Residents from St Austell in Cornwall had few nice words to say about their troubled town, which they reckon is now riddled with drink, drugs and homelessness.
6
6
6
YouTuber Oli Kendrall, who explores places up and down the country in a bid to "show the real Britain", declared the coastal town "forgotten" and one of the most "unhappy" he had visited.
In the recent , locals told him they despaired over the current state of St Austell and its rising social problems.
Walking down the main highstreet, Kendrall remarked that it is "sad and dead" except for the high number of homeless people and street drinkers.
There were plenty of empty shopfronts, very few people knocking about and security guards stationed on corners.
read more on cornwall
"It's not a place tourists chose to come to... It's the town Cornwall forgot," he said.
One passer-by told him: "I came down here to be with my mum who's ill and it was our Cornwall dream and it's turned into our Cornwall nightmare.
"I hate this town - the drugs, the abuse, the swearing, the violence."
Another local called it "a bit of a weird town really... It's a lovely town, but it's poverty stricken."
Most read in The Sun
Kendrall spoke to plenty of community workers who are trying to help the town shed its "rough" image, but it seems to be a persistent problem.
A barber was particularly distraught with how the town's issues are harming his business.
"Customers don't come in here anymore because people don't feel safe," he said.
"People coming out with knives, had this one guy come out with a gun."
The situation, he explained, has gotten so bad that "old people are too scared to go to church.
As the YouTuber wrapped up his "investigation", he was struck by how close St Austell was "to the beautiful paradise of this perfect side of Cornwall".
And yet, he said: "In terms of social issues and just the general mood and vibe, it is not a happy place.
"I've met some good people that are really trying to help others but there's a lot of unhappiness with the state of the town at the moment."
To end, he asked himself: "Is it awful? I don't know about awful, but it's certainly not a happy place.
"It's one of the more unhappy places I've visited in Cornwall."
It comes as locals in another UK seaside town have complained that it's being ruined by second home-owners.
Residents in the picturesque North Yorkshire resort of Robin Hood's Bay say they can no longer afford homes there due to newcomers snapping up holiday cottages.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Average home prices in the historic fishing village near Whitby have now hit £488,000, according to property firm RightMove.
That's more than double the typical £200,000 for similar homes in Scarborough just 13 miles along England's north-eastern coast.
6
6
6
Topics