Hate crime

As you know, we were at the Northfield Community Arts Forum (Nafcaf) last night. We had a great discussion, really enjoyed speaking to everyone there. We asked some participants for their thoughts on the discussion - here's some snippets of what they said.

We had quite a difficult conversation today with some residents in the Weoley area of Northfield. We were talking about how safe people feel in the local area. They told us that they didn't feel that safe for a number of reasons, including: young people riding quads up and down the road, a feeling that there were gangs of young people hanging round local streets, and suggestions that people were taking drugs in local parks. What was interesting was that they obviously felt guilty for saying this. Northfield had a reputation, they said, for being a bit dodgy so they always tried to be positive about it. In particular, they tried not to repeat stereotypes and assumptions people have about young people. This seems to be quite a common concern - local people are worried about gangs and young people taking drugs, but don't want to make too big a deal out of it. Instead, they say they'd much prefer to see more things put on for young people in the local area. We've mentioned the Nafcaf whenever people have talked to us about this - if you have any other suggestions let us know.

Hearing a lot of complaints about a lack of housing in Northfield and the surrounding area. Some public sector workers are telling us this is creating real animosity toward migrants. 'People are saying, "we need to look after our own first,"' one person told us, 'There's a lot of anger and frustration... and a feeling of entitlement not being met'.