My picturesque historic town has been ruined by drunk tourists and rough sleepers – kids take drugs in broad daylight
A WOMAN claims her picturesque historic town has been ruined by drunk tourists and rough sleepers.
Gillian Bridge said life in the West Country spa city of Bath is now a nightmare and a far cry from the elegant and sophisticated area it used to be.
Once known as being the idyllic setting for the rich and fashionable has been taken over by yobs who inhale deodorant spray in an attempt to get high, she says.
The former teacher and drugs counsellor said the cobbled streets are now blighted by anti-social behaviour and it's "feral".
She said it has now become a "world" of rough sleepers, graffiti-covered buildings, open drug-taking, alcoholism and rowdy visitors on stag and hen dos.
Writing in the , she said: "My heart has been broken by what has happened to the city I called home for so many years.
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"I took a shortcut through narrow Parsonage Lane, where I saw a group of four teenagers openly taking drugs in a doorway.
"Two girls, no older than 13 or 14, were inhaling deodorant spray to get high."
The grandma said the kids' story was "deeply upsetting" as they admitted to her that their parents knew where they were but were not bothered.
And Gillian said a lot of locals blame the Lib-Dem council who "don't care".
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Concerns are also rising about the amount of cops around to help.
Bath's largest police station has been closed and replaced by a desk in a council-run office - which was shut on a Saturday when Gillian tried to get help for the youths.
She added: "[Locals] blame the rise of Airbnb rental accommodation, the lack of police on the streets and a wholesale shift in Bath's character to become a 24-hour party city every weekend.
"My daughter said she'd rather be out and about in Central London on her own at night than in Bath.
"Others blame the council for not cleaning up the graffiti or dealing with the rough sleeping problem."
It comes after residents said their hometown has been ruined by criminals who steal money and break into homes.
Southend in Essex is one of the UK's best-loved resorts - but locals have been "terrorised" by a spate of burglaries.
And locals in West Yorkshire claim their gardens were being used as toilets when drunken revellers plagued their "beautiful village".
