IT’S one of the nation’s most deprived areas – and has a fearsome reputation to match.
Locals from Orchard Park Estate in Kingston upon Hull, Yorks, claim gangs terrorise the streets, brazenly carry out drug deals in shops and steal cars before torching them.
The area was recently highlighted in the House Of Commons as one of 225 ‘left-behind neighbourhoods’ that are most vulnerable to the cost of living crisis.
The report concluded Orchard Park has the highest percentage of fuel poverty in England, with more than 29 per cent of residents predicted to be unable to afford to heat their homes based on their income, compared to 13.5 per cent nationally.
MP for North Hull Dame Diana Johnson, who helped carry out the research, says she was “inundated” with responses from residents “genuinely frightened by the energy price hike coming down the road”.
Now as part of The Sun’s Broke Britain series – where we visit areas blighted by the cost of living crisis – locals tell us just how tight times have become, and how it’s fuelling a spike in crime.
‘Dealers sell drugs in shops’
On a litter-strewn street of rundown shops in Orchard Park, one pensioner who didn’t want to be named for fear of reprisals says gangs are “running wild”.
They tell us: “It’s not just kids either. Grown men! One did a wheelie on a motorbike all the way down the pavement – people coming out of shops were scared for their lives.”
The individual claims thugs “smashed up all the CCTV cameras” in a bid to hide their identities and nefarious acts.
They add: “You can buy drugs in shops. The police do f**k all. They are scared to come here,” they claimed. “No one wants to live on Orchard Park.”
The area’s drug problems became starkly apparent when a panicked resident tells us his neighbour recently died from a suspected overdose.
While he tried to resuscitate him with CPR, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Charity shop volunteer Mark Sharp, 53, says “things haven’t improved” in the last 30 years despite ongoing efforts to revive and improve the increasingly stigmatised estate.
“You still get druggies around – there were some living down the street from us,” he says.
“You don’t see coppers very often… I stay indoors mainly, it’s not safe.”
