Is the City of Leicester a dump?

[danny.]

2 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

You're a clever dude. An IQ way beyond mine. But sometimes all this intelligence forms you a cosy harmonious live and let live narrative. So long as you don't have to actively live it,.obvs.

 

I haven't got a narrative. My comments aren't anecdotal. It's my own eyes matey. South Leicester suburbs are my patch, my manor.

 

And I'm telling you, not expressing a view, that Indians (Asians) moved in and it triggered a decline. The housing stock in oadby and wigston is in tatters. Broken fences, unkempt gardens. Weed strewn driveways.  Garish and incongruous extensions. Mosques in semi detached houses. Diwali fireworks banging off at all hours.

 

And because of this the white population has fcked off. Whether you like it or not. They've fcked off to the county villages.  And in that vacuum come more and more. 

 

 

I’m also in south Leicester and everything you said is spot on. Of course @leicsmac will still say it’s nonsense but add one to the anecdotal fictional account from someone else that has lived and lives there.

Edited 16 November 2025 by danny.

[Wymsey]

What's the latest data on ethnicity proportions for Leicester?

 

Reckon there has been a big change in one group over the last 10 years or so.

Edited 16 November 2025 by Wymsey

[PAULCFC]

I count myself lucky that i've been able to get out of the City of Leicester......i was born there and lived there for 50 odd years,but the decline over the past decade has been noticible to me(may be getting older has skewed my thoughts!) Cycle Lanes that no one uses,Bus Lanes that only lead to congestion and try to get into the city centre in a car(not that i'd want to) are just a few things that made my mind up to leave.......i'll allways call it home and love coming back.........but only for a couple of days!

[leicsmac]

47 minutes ago, danny. said:

I’m also in south Leicester and everything you said is spot on. Of course @leicsmac will still say it’s nonsense but add one to the anecdotal fictional account from someone else that has lived and lives there.

Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in! 

 

To be clear, I have no issue whatsoever with the facts of demographic change in the city that are being talked about. Nor with the increased levels of deprivation being witnessed. 

 

What I do have an issue with is the inference that any particular racial group is any more inherently given to causing that kind of deprivation than any other. That has absolutely no basis in evidence.

Edited 16 November 2025 by leicsmac

[davieG]

Not the City but the County that there leaving for.

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/grew-up-charity-street-leicestershire-10644314#comments-wrapper

 

I grew up in 'Charity Street' Leicestershire town and I still think it's one of the best places to live
Very few places are thriving at the moment but Hinckley certainly isn't getting any worse

Sam Dimmer East Midlands Head of Brand
05:00, 17 Nov 2025

Sam Dimmer says the Leicestershire town still has a huge amount to offer, despite the changes to the high street

This year, we're visiting towns across Leicestershire in the run-up to Christmas to find out how things are going and what their hopes are for 2026.

Today, we've been to Hinckley, a town that has been criticised in the past for being full of charity shops. Hinckley resident and Leicestershire Live writer Sam Dimmer says the town still has a huge amount to offer, despite the changes to the high street.

It's tough to be too positive about the place you live, it seems, right now. Everyone appears determined to paint their home town as a declining dump, being overtaken by neighbours and with shops shutting left, right and centre.

A month ago, Leicestershire Live went out to speak to people in Hinckley, with many saying the High Street is dying. I don't think they're right at all. Castle Street isn't dying; it's evolving, and it has been evolving for years.

Leicester businesses left feeling ‘helpless’ due to nuisance road users

Cars left trapped due to flooding under A50 bridge as Storm Claudia disruption continues

Big retailers aren't just closing in Hinckley, they're shutting everywhere, because people don't shop in towns and cities like they used to.

It's a bit snobbish to lament the rise of charity shops when so many people use them as a totally reasonable alternative to buying everything new. Second-hand is greener, cheaper and usually absolutely fine. Also, it's Hinckley; it's not as if Waitrose is opening up anytime soon.

Many of the independent shops are exceptional too. Much of Hinckley's success is built on places like Marmalade Meringue and others at the top of Castle Street.

In fact, if you asked most people what they actually wanted in the town, I suspect they'd say places that haven't existed for decades or would never open here because we're a moderately sized town and not a giant city.

Yes, I would also like Uniqlo and Primark to open in Hinckley, but I'm not massively hopeful, and I'm not going to blame the council for it when they turn down my request.

Realistically (a key word when having any discussion like this), what do you want in a Leicestershire town? A good leisure centre? Got it. A cinema? For the time being, at least, got it. Decent pubs, bars, restaurants, and cafes? Got it in spades. A decent market? Yep, we have a very decent one, thank you very much indeed.

Even the schools are good too - I was a student at John Cleveland College when Ofsted was rumoured to be seriously considering shutting it, and things are so much better now. Admittedly, it couldn't have got much worse, but still, celebrate the small victories.

Yes, the roads are awful, I'm fully aware, and someone desperately needs to find a way to end the daily gridlock for those brave enough to leave the M69 at Burbage, but that will cost a tremendous amount.

Also, one of the reasons traffic is so bad is that we're building loads of houses because it's a brilliant place to live, surrounded by great places you can easily visit.

I appreciate that positivity is in short supply at the moment, but Hinckley remains a great place. And if anyone is in any doubt, just take a short drive to Nuneaton. It could be so very much worse.

 

Comments

 

ma

mankytwonk4 hrs ago

Hinckley is no different to most towns, people dropping litter, people drinking and taking drugs on the street, plenty of begging and spitting. It’s just a blueprint for every city/town, it’s the people that let these places down.

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Comment by Rochford.

Ro

Rochford3 hrs ago

As a Bur-beige resident I'm somewhat affronted. Lol.

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Comment by bc65.

bc

bc652 hrs ago

A poor town for shopping and the roads just are not big enough. Always gridlocked what ever side of the town you live in.

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Comment by Donald_Trump.

Do

Donald_Trump2 hrs ago

We’re not having loads of houses built because it’s amazing round here, it’s because the cash strapped council are desperate for people’s money and even if the council says ‘no’ to a new estate, the planning big wigs in Whitehall over rule them!. The people that live in the new houses likely commute out of the town, and rather than use Brightmores Of Burbage for home electrical and supporting local businesses, they’ll take their money to the out of town retail parks.

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Comment by Donald_Trump.

Do

Donald_Trump2 hrs ago

And, having lived there for 25 years not that many years ago, it was always pronounced Bur-Bidge? Has something changed?

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Comment by concerned 1.

c1

concerned 11 hr ago

Burbage & Hinckley are now joined, as the new houses have come across the border. It still makes me laugh when I read the blurb for the new housing estates, stating great public transport, doctors surgeries and schools, good shopping facilities, where do they get that idea from . Hinckley do put on some good events. The council don’t act quick enough when things go wrong, streets aren’t cleaned, drains are blocked etc etc. Moved to Burbage 15 years ago and it’s declined in the last five years.

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Comment by nigelfanboy.

ni

nigelfanboy55 min ago

Nobody pronounces Burbage like that, another reporter that claims to be local or he would know this 🙄

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Comment by manmadetwo.

ma

manmadetwo10 min ago

Cities and towns have gone.

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[leicsmac]

14 minutes ago, davieG said:

Not the City but the County that there leaving for.

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/grew-up-charity-street-leicestershire-10644314#comments-wrapper

 

I grew up in 'Charity Street' Leicestershire town and I still think it's one of the best places to live
Very few places are thriving at the moment but Hinckley certainly isn't getting any worse

Sam Dimmer East Midlands Head of Brand
05:00, 17 Nov 2025

Sam Dimmer says the Leicestershire town still has a huge amount to offer, despite the changes to the high street

This year, we're visiting towns across Leicestershire in the run-up to Christmas to find out how things are going and what their hopes are for 2026.

Today, we've been to Hinckley, a town that has been criticised in the past for being full of charity shops. Hinckley resident and Leicestershire Live writer Sam Dimmer says the town still has a huge amount to offer, despite the changes to the high street.

It's tough to be too positive about the place you live, it seems, right now. Everyone appears determined to paint their home town as a declining dump, being overtaken by neighbours and with shops shutting left, right and centre.

A month ago, Leicestershire Live went out to speak to people in Hinckley, with many saying the High Street is dying. I don't think they're right at all. Castle Street isn't dying; it's evolving, and it has been evolving for years.

Leicester businesses left feeling ‘helpless’ due to nuisance road users

Cars left trapped due to flooding under A50 bridge as Storm Claudia disruption continues

Big retailers aren't just closing in Hinckley, they're shutting everywhere, because people don't shop in towns and cities like they used to.

It's a bit snobbish to lament the rise of charity shops when so many people use them as a totally reasonable alternative to buying everything new. Second-hand is greener, cheaper and usually absolutely fine. Also, it's Hinckley; it's not as if Waitrose is opening up anytime soon.

Many of the independent shops are exceptional too. Much of Hinckley's success is built on places like Marmalade Meringue and others at the top of Castle Street.

In fact, if you asked most people what they actually wanted in the town, I suspect they'd say places that haven't existed for decades or would never open here because we're a moderately sized town and not a giant city.

Yes, I would also like Uniqlo and Primark to open in Hinckley, but I'm not massively hopeful, and I'm not going to blame the council for it when they turn down my request.

Realistically (a key word when having any discussion like this), what do you want in a Leicestershire town? A good leisure centre? Got it. A cinema? For the time being, at least, got it. Decent pubs, bars, restaurants, and cafes? Got it in spades. A decent market? Yep, we have a very decent one, thank you very much indeed.

Even the schools are good too - I was a student at John Cleveland College when Ofsted was rumoured to be seriously considering shutting it, and things are so much better now. Admittedly, it couldn't have got much worse, but still, celebrate the small victories.

Yes, the roads are awful, I'm fully aware, and someone desperately needs to find a way to end the daily gridlock for those brave enough to leave the M69 at Burbage, but that will cost a tremendous amount.

Also, one of the reasons traffic is so bad is that we're building loads of houses because it's a brilliant place to live, surrounded by great places you can easily visit.

I appreciate that positivity is in short supply at the moment, but Hinckley remains a great place. And if anyone is in any doubt, just take a short drive to Nuneaton. It could be so very much worse.

 

Comments

 

ma

mankytwonk4 hrs ago

Hinckley is no different to most towns, people dropping litter, people drinking and taking drugs on the street, plenty of begging and spitting. It’s just a blueprint for every city/town, it’s the people that let these places down.

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Comment by Rochford.

Ro

Rochford3 hrs ago

As a Bur-beige resident I'm somewhat affronted. Lol.

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Comment by bc65.

bc

bc652 hrs ago

A poor town for shopping and the roads just are not big enough. Always gridlocked what ever side of the town you live in.

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Comment by Donald_Trump.

Do

Donald_Trump2 hrs ago

We’re not having loads of houses built because it’s amazing round here, it’s because the cash strapped council are desperate for people’s money and even if the council says ‘no’ to a new estate, the planning big wigs in Whitehall over rule them!. The people that live in the new houses likely commute out of the town, and rather than use Brightmores Of Burbage for home electrical and supporting local businesses, they’ll take their money to the out of town retail parks.

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Comment by Donald_Trump.

Do

Donald_Trump2 hrs ago

And, having lived there for 25 years not that many years ago, it was always pronounced Bur-Bidge? Has something changed?

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Comment by concerned 1.

c1

concerned 11 hr ago

Burbage & Hinckley are now joined, as the new houses have come across the border. It still makes me laugh when I read the blurb for the new housing estates, stating great public transport, doctors surgeries and schools, good shopping facilities, where do they get that idea from . Hinckley do put on some good events. The council don’t act quick enough when things go wrong, streets aren’t cleaned, drains are blocked etc etc. Moved to Burbage 15 years ago and it’s declined in the last five years.

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Comment by nigelfanboy.

ni

nigelfanboy55 min ago

Nobody pronounces Burbage like that, another reporter that claims to be local or he would know this 🙄

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Comment by manmadetwo.

ma

manmadetwo10 min ago

Cities and towns have gone.

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Those comments are one of the best arguments against direct democracy I've ever seen. 

[Tommy G]

11 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in! 

 

To be clear, I have no issue whatsoever with the facts of demographic change in the city that are being talked about. Nor with the increased levels of deprivation being witnessed. 

 

What I do have an issue with is the inference that any particular racial group is any more inherently given to causing that kind of deprivation than any other. That has absolutely no basis in evidence.

Apart from the actual decline coupled with the increase in numbers, or is that just pure coincidence?

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Apart from the actual decline coupled with the increase in numbers, or is that just pure coincidence?

It's a single datapoint where the correlation hasn't been directly linked to the causation anyway.

 

You can't use those to to come to any valid and robust conclusion about any big hypothesis, especially one that implies demographic inferiority. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

12 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in! 

 

To be clear, I have no issue whatsoever with the facts of demographic change in the city that are being talked about. Nor with the increased levels of deprivation being witnessed. 

 

What I do have an issue with is the inference that any particular racial group is any more inherently given to causing that kind of deprivation than any other. That has absolutely no basis in evidence.

As someone who gets around a lot of different areas and gets to see many houses close up, I can assure everyone that the descriptions levelled at the Asian community are almost entirety (very few mosques in predominantly white areas) applicable to people of all races.

 

It's more a generational thing in my opinion. As life becomes more automated, people have become more insular and self serving. This is obviously a generalisation.

 

There is increasingly a disparity between haves and have-nots driven by the monopolisation of trades and services into increasingly larger corporations with little to no human interaction. Of course those who could halt the downward spiral don't because money 

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

As someone who gets around a lot of different areas and gets to see many houses close up, I can assure everyone that the descriptions levelled at the Asian community are almost entirety (very few mosques in predominantly white areas) applicable to people of all races.

 

It's more a generational thing in my opinion. As life becomes more automated, people have become more insular and self serving. This is obviously a generalisation.

 

There is increasingly a disparity between haves and have-nots driven by the monopolisation of trades and services into increasingly larger corporations with little to no human interaction. Of course those who could halt the downward spiral don't because money 

Right, this is also a perfectly reasonable explanation for what's going on. 

[danny.]

16 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

The housing stock in oadby and wigston is in tatters. Broken fences, unkempt gardens. Weed strewn driveways.  Garish and incongruous extensions. Mosques in semi detached houses. Diwali fireworks banging off at all hours.

 

19 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

It's more a generational thing in my opinion. As life becomes more automated, people have become more insular and self serving.

 

14 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Right, this is also a perfectly reasonable explanation for what's going on. 

Not really, is it. 
 

If people were more self serving they’d be less likely to have “Broken fences, unkempt gardens. Weed strewn driveways”. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

4 minutes ago, danny. said:

 

 

Not really, is it. 
 

If people were more self serving they’d be less likely to have “Broken fences, unkempt gardens. Weed strewn driveways”. 

Self serving doesn't mean you take care of things yourself. It means you expect others to do it for you. I'll give that it's unusual phraseology, but that is its meaning.

[Aleksz]

16 hours ago, splinterdream said:

I can share an interesting perspective in this debate, I’m a gas engineer and Leicester born and bred. For 9 years I worked in Stamford and Peterborough, but for 1 of my 10 years at British Gas, I worked Leicester South, mainly highfields. I then moved back to Leicester and sub contracted for Leicester city council, and worked in the private homes of people around Leicester and the shire for the rest of my 32 year career. I have seen the demographic shifts in the areas and imo there is concentrated areas of one ethnic group. 
one thing that saddened me recently was town. My wife, somebody who grew up in Loughborough, always prefers to go fosse park, the rare occasion I go to buy some clothes, I always persuade her to go town as I think it has more variety, but last time I went I think it has now got to the point where I think fosse park is better, I’m even thinking next time I go clothes shopping, I might go Nottingham or Birmingham, which saddens me a lot.

Fosse is miles better these days. Isn't much you can get in terms of shopping (mainly clothing) in town that you can't get at Fosse. John Lewis maybe. 

 

Town is a better option if you want to eat out, but that's about it.

[danny.]

3 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Self serving doesn't mean you take care of things yourself. It means you expect others to do it for you. I'll give that it's unusual phraseology, but that is its meaning.

Couldn’t find a single dictionary to corroborate that, but OK. I know you have your own definitions of words from the TV channel discussion though so maybe you meant lazy, entitled or something else. 
 

[leicsmac]

19 minutes ago, danny. said:

 

 

Not really, is it. 
 

If people were more self serving they’d be less likely to have “Broken fences, unkempt gardens. Weed strewn driveways”. 

Self serving, as per the definition above = selfish. 

 

Selfish people often tend to get other people to do their work for them and not bother with much work themselves as part of their lack of concern for others. Thus, it's entirely possible for their environments to become dilapidated. 

 

I'm not sure where the dispute is. 

 

Edited 17 November 2025 by leicsmac

[danny.]

I mean, I know loads of thoroughly selfish people with immaculate houses. As you would say, there is no evidence that selfish people have dilapidated dwellings. 

[leicsmac]

10 minutes ago, danny. said:

I mean, I know loads of thoroughly selfish people with immaculate houses. As you would say, there is no evidence that selfish people have dilapidated dwellings. 

True enough, and there's no evidence that people of any one particular race are inclined to having dilapidated homes either. 

 

So here we are, though I'm doing my best to qualify my own remarks as possibility and theory rather than stating them as fact.

[CosbehFox]

In  lighter news, I quite enjoyed Saturday morning doing Park run at Victoria Park and then off to Queens Road for various bits & bobs afterwards. 

[leicsmac]

Just now, CosbehFox said:

In  lighter news, I quite enjoyed Saturday morning doing Park run at Victoria Park and then off to Queens Road for various bits & bobs afterwards. 

On a similar note, I was in Hinckley town centre in Saturday daytime and it's hardly the shithole some make it out to be. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

28 minutes ago, danny. said:

Couldn’t find a single dictionary to corroborate that, but OK. I know you have your own definitions of words from the TV channel discussion though so maybe you meant lazy, entitled or something else. 
 

That's again, exactly what I said.

 

I double checked and found that exact definition and was satisfied with it.

 

A self serving person puts themselves above others, concerned only for their own needs, such that they think someone else should provide for them. They're not bothered that their garden is messy or fence is broken. They're in their house, the world is outside, it's someone else's problem.

 

Your successes are yours, your problems are for other people.

[Tommy G]

18 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

On a similar note, I was in Hinckley town centre in Saturday daytime and it's hardly the shithole some make it out to be. 

If you like costa, charity shop, greggs, charity shop, we-buy-phone4cash, charity shop. x 100. Its not a particularly inspiring high st.

[davieG]

17 hours ago, Paninistickers said:

You're a clever dude. An IQ way beyond mine. But sometimes all this intelligence forms you a cosy harmonious live and let live narrative. So long as you don't have to actively live it,.obvs.

 

I haven't got a narrative. My comments aren't anecdotal. It's my own eyes matey. South Leicester suburbs are my patch, my manor.

 

And I'm telling you, not expressing a view, that Indians (Asians) moved in and it triggered a decline. The housing stock in oadby and wigston is in tatters. Broken fences, unkempt gardens. Weed strewn driveways.  Garish and incongruous extensions. Mosques in semi detached houses. Diwali fireworks banging off at all hours.

 

And because of this the white population has fcked off. Whether you like it or not. They've fcked off to the county villages.  And in that vacuum come more and more. 

 

 

You can see that in some of the Council Estates like New Parks which when I lived in Glenfield 10 years ago looked predominately white.

 

Part of the problem is unless you own the house there's no incentive to maintain or keep it tidy externally.

 

When people first moved into those council estates from the terrace slums with no toilets they were proud of them and the Councils maintained them.

[Paninistickers]

36 minutes ago, davieG said:

You can see that in some of the Council Estates like New Parks which when I lived in Glenfield 10 years ago looked predominately white.

 

Part of the problem is unless you own the house there's no incentive to maintain or keep it tidy externally.

 

When people first moved into those council estates from the terrace slums with no toilets they were proud of them and the Councils maintained them.

Mate, I agree totally. But my point is slightly different. 

 

Oadby and Wigston and Welford road  were predominantly private and perceived the nice end of town. Lots of Jelson 1960s private estates. They are in tatters. It now looks far more like the new parks of old. 

 

Yet I can point to almost identical 60s, 70s, 80s  Jelson estates in, say, Groby, which are still largely white, and they are still clinging on. The neatness, the tidiness.  

 

It's an uncomfortable truth that Indians moving in to an area triggers a decline. Belgrave, Evington, Humberstone, Spinney Hills have been trashed for years. But the collapse of affluent South Leicester has happened in 20 years. And the last decade it's been in freefall. 

Edited 17 November 2025 by Paninistickers

[leicsmac]

8 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

Mate, I agree totally. But my point is slightly different. 

 

Oadby and Wigston and Welford road  were predominantly private and perceived the nice end of town. Lots of Jelson 1960s private estates. They are in tatters. It now looks far more like the new parks of old. 

 

Yet I can point to almost identical 60s, 70s, 80s  Jelson estates in, say, Groby, which are still largely white, and they are still clinging on. The neatness, the tidiness.  

 

It's an uncomfortable truth that Indians moving in to an area triggers a decline. Belgrave, Evington, Humberstone, Spinney Hills have been trashed for years. But the collapse of affluent South Leicester has happened in 20 years. And the last decade it's been in freefall. 

Purely for the record and for the benefit of anyone else here, stating something is truth/factual without legit substantiation doesn't necessarily make it so.

 

46 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

If you like costa, charity shop, greggs, charity shop, we-buy-phone4cash, charity shop. x 100. Its not a particularly inspiring high st.

However, the Crescent restaurants appeared to be doing good business, as did the market and there were plenty of people about. 

 

Perhaps not high on vitality, but certainly not on life support either. 

[Tommy G]

2 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Purely for the record and for the benefit of anyone else here, stating something is truth/factual without legit substantiation doesn't necessarily make it so.

 

However, the Crescent restaurants appeared to be doing good business, as did the market and there were plenty of people about. 

 

Perhaps not high on vitality, but certainly not on life support either. 

I was briefly in Hinckley on Saturday, it's a shame we didn't cross paths, we could of chatted over a coffee over our alignment on UK Politics