Locals carrying machetes, shoplifting and homelessness plague ‘best place to live in England’

IT was only last summer that Plymouth was named ‘the best place to live in England’.

But locals say the historic maritime city is now plagued by mobs of destructive kids as young as 11, shoplifters, and drug users openly dealing on the streets and “shooting up” in shops.

Business owners have complained about a rise in people stealing and abuse towards staff, windows being smashed, and young gangs trying to break into buildings through skylights.

On the morning The Sun visited we were met by boarded-up shopfronts and walls of graffiti, groups of arguing youths and drunks zig-zagging up the street clutching cans of booze.

Pete Monsgrove, 53, is Plymouth-born and bred and said crime has noticeably increased in the past few years.

“The way things are going are bad,” he told us. “I saw a guy, someone I recognised, and he was carrying a machete round town.

“I was like, ‘What are you doing?’ and he said, ‘It’s for my protection’.

“This not a huge city with major crime, it’s just a small town, but it has its problems. There are a lot of homeless people now.

“The council are investing millions on one end of town and nothing at the other end. Look around you – it’s a ghost town.”

He added that the opening of Drake Circus, a large glass-fronted shopping centre completed in 2006, has had a knock-on effect on the high street.

“This used to a be thriving town, but since they built that hideous mall, the town is dead.

“It’s full of charity shops, the businesses left are struggling.”

Statistics from 2022 show Plymouth is now the most dangerous city in Devon, putting the crime rate at 64 per 1,000 people – 40 per cent higher than the county’s average.

On an evening in January a gang of up to 60 youths rampaged through the town terrorising businesses, smashing windows, climbing onto rooftops and hurling things down into the street.

Three police cars were reportedly smashed up and the police later made more than 10 arrests.

It prompted businesses to call for action. At a recent meeting between police, the city council, Plymouth Against Retail Crime (Parc) and Crimestoppers UK, the chief executive of Plymouth City Centre Company, Steve Hughes, declared: “We can’t tolerate this any more.”

“They were throwing things, being abusive and running into shops,” Steve told The Sun.

“We’ve got a lot of low rooftops in Plymouth and they were throwing things down into the street. When the police were called, they had no respect for the law. Some of these kids were only 11.”

He added: “All city centres have crime, but it’s escalated here. The cost-of-living crisis means there are more homeless people living on the streets.

“We’ve got people with mental health issues, people with drug addiction and alcohol problems. Shoplifting is at an all-time high.

“On top of that, in the last year or so, we have an awful lot of antisocial behaviour from very young people. We are lucky in that we are a resilient community.”

Businesswoman Lesley Park, 63, who owns a string of franchises of the pasty store Oggy Oggy, told The Sun: “I’ve had people outside the shop causing a disturbance, fighting outside the shop, arguments over drugs.

“I see drug deals openly taking place on the street outside and it’s a huge problem.

“The back area of our shop has been smashed into and we had someone break in by climbing through the toilet window to try and get cash, so we’ve had to install reinforced shutters.

Read more: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/26221205/plymouth-crime-drugs-teen-mobs/

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now there’s people like I saw someone in town a couple of weeks ago and he was carrying around a a machete and I said to him I would say his name I said to him I said what are you doing I said what are you doing and he says for my protection I noticed in certain areas you got like where heroin some places a lot of Alcoholics and other areas a lot of people do like crack cocaine in some areas she my sister’s ases off my neck yeah and then B me all up my head and all down my [Music] face we’re here in Plymouth City Center today speaking to retailers about the issues they’ve had with antisocial Behavior large gangs of Hughs and shoplifting and what they’d like to see done about it how does that type of behavior affect retailers here then very much so because uh what what what ends up happening is quite a few of these people try to use those retailers for the toilets all sorts of problems indoors and a huge increase in shoplifting that’s really prevalent at the moment pth is is a small place yes we’ve got we’ve got crime but there’s nothing for the the youngsters to do anymore there’s nowhere for the youngsters to go and they’re on the streets and then they turny to they turn to CME yes the homelessness has increased over the years I’m actually from so it’s so sad to see but there’s an awful lot um especially around the city center I suppose because I I work close by I I see it regularly I’ve just been going around doing a bit of shopping today and there’s there’s homeless everywhere around in doorways and even even if they’re not in the doorways you just walk past and you see sleeping blankets D where they’ve obviously got nowhere to go it doesn’t help with a wonderful Council not doing nothing about the homeless people there’s a hell of a lot of homeless here and the council don’t do much about it all and that’s that’s gospel truth I homeless I’ll find food I’ll never give them [Music] money you know the par officers if you had occasion to contact them yourself yes what was that about people outside causing a disturbance fighting outside of the shop being rude to their Partners probably usually as well over drugs multiple occasions mainly it’s for shoplifting sometimes obviously we do get uh antisocial baby Behavior out ey which is predominantly the drunks that get a little bit too worse for wear and then they just basically PP themselves on the floor out there which can be a little bit intimidating for customers walking up and down and obviously if you’re a mum of a young baby that’s not going to be very nice to them either us and the coach station work quite well together on that one share information yeah we do yeah cuz we’ve also got the back area to worry about as well well we’ve got a back area we’ve been smashed at the back people have got in through the toilets and smashed in through the window so they broken into toilets to try and get to cash yeah yeah so we’ve had to reinforce our toilet shatters so obviously the first thing gets through on the radio we’ll find out what it is that’s happening say like a shoplifting if it is then um if they’re known or if they’re not if they’re not then we’ll get descriptions of which way they’ve gone what they taken and then we’ll try and catch up CCTV will try and pick them up on camera again yes we’ll try and pass on as much as we can we’ll deal with what we can as well so if it’s below a certain amount and we feel that we can get names and um pictures then then we kind of deal with so roughly around 200 then we’ll start looking around at calling the police there’s loads of homeless people everywhere is H that’s homeless and then there’s also drug addicts alcoholics drug AIDS homelesses everything this is like a normal place in it well not normal or is it sh leting robberies NE old man sorry about my language um ni enough old man um B like everywh your T is so far and you’ve had shoplifters in store as well you said yes we do get shoplifters not so many cu we have got CCTV we have got the cameras up the mirrors up around the store and then we’ve also got the radio which we can use as well majority of the shoplifters do stand out a little bit like a sfam and you get to know what they look like obviously I can’t say what that is but yeah they’ve got quite a bit of a name and with the radio support as well you get to hear when certain people are in the city center vicinity which helps us then keep a lookout for them as well so the radio does help us massively obviously having more Park offices in the city center would help massively and I know amard way is having the whole new work done down throughout but obviously I think at our end of the city center the CCT cameras aren’t very good the food price is going up I see it all the time like even girls in certain areas are pinching sh I think it’s the price of food keeps going up and more be done for the homeless yeah care um they could care care more for the homeless try and put them up um get them into places I know some some of them prefer to be outside but some of them they’ve got nothing and they have got nothing at all and you just it’s sad when you see them out there we we take life for granted when we’re um out own and tucked up in our beds we take it for granted they haven’t got nothing nothing at all and you look at our town center now our town center is dead then this end then the bottom end of town is dead this used to be this used to be a thve in town center but now since they built that stupid hideous M the town is is full of Charity shops business down here are struggling it’s hideous rents it’s hideous rates but they don’t care the count don’t care well it depends on what stage you a domestic could be us um and obviously just like and then go with someone else and yeah just independent really now relationship yeah that went wrong and yeah did you sleep on the street um a few times yeah s for sa which manag it’s not good but then obviously on the streets so what happens what happened you L my sister’s ashes yeah my sister died 14th in February 2016 and she L my sister’s ashes off my neck yeah and then B of me all up side me head and all down my face homeless gu that bags across from the Oho well the police are do in their BS but you can’t stop everyone can you but I don’t know I actually don’t know how the hell would you how the hell would you like stop people doing the crime they need to invest in this end of town look at look at it it’s a ghost town it’s a it’s a ghost town that used to be our wonderful world and there just split about years ago and now my friend there who owns that shop there he used to have a huge shop down the bottom the tank that c then where you said um and they took him out of there they turned around they said um they’re pulling it down it’s a compulsory purchase order so they kicked him out he didn’t no compensation he now pays triple his normal rent for a shop which is a third of the size but now it’s happened that they’ve got another 5 years to build it so it’s not being pulled down no but do they do the count so he’s paying a private landord now yeah but do the counsil come along to him and say come back to us no they’ll have all these shops empty our our Town’s bad it’s gone