We visit the Birmingham street dubbed ‘Britain’s roughest street’ to find out if it really is that bad

Residents say they are living in fear on ‘Britain’s roughest street’ which is rife with £5 prostitutes, teenagers being stabbed and drug addicts ‘everywhere’.

Slade Road in Stockland Green, Birmingham, is said to be a hotbed of violence and drugs which has spiralled into decline over the last few years. Locals say they are too frightened to go out after dark following numerous attacks, street robberies and drug dealing, which even goes on in broad daylight. People say they are also approached by cut-price sex workers peddling their trade along the street for as little as a fiver.

Parents are forced to drop their children directly at the school gates and business owners are escorted to the post office in fear of being mugged for their takings. Residents also say drunk people and ‘zombiefied’ addicts constantly roam the streets and some are too frightened to visit the shops by themselves during the day They say the problem has got worse over the last decade and police are rarely seen along the street, which has been dubbed ‘Britain’s roughest’.

Gran-of-two Pam Round, 69, says she has seen the street decline in her seven years working in a cafe at Stockland Green Methodist Church on Slade Road. She said: “I’ve worked at the community café for about seven years and in that time the road has got progressively worse.

“People tend to hang about on the street and sit in doorways and you get that nervous feeling when you walk down it, and it feels like a very sad area. I do feel safe in the day, but if I was to walk down it at night, I don’t think I would feel safe. People hang around the shops and the post office and I know this makes people scared to go out and do their shopping.

“There are two schools close by and I know parents drop their kids off at the secondary school, so they don’t get targeting by drug dealing. It happens in broad daylight and parents are worried that their children will fall into it. You don’t see the police around here often which is worrying.

“We have people turn up to the community café emotionally distressed from all the drugs and drink they have taken, and we don’t know who to call. It can be quite distressing and we are not professionally trained to deal with this.”

A woman working in a corner shop on the street, who wished to remain anonymous, said business was declining due to the street’s bad reputation. She said: “This problem has been accelerating over the last ten years. There’s drunken people and people doing drugs all over the place and they also sell the drugs in broad daylight and something needs to be done.

“It’s getting out of control and people are frightened to come out which is affecting the businesses. People can’t come out to do their shopping because they are frightened they are going to get ambushed and they can’t do their day-to-day tasks.

“If they go and get money out from the post office, they are scared it will be taken. The situation is very bad. We have had to escort people in the past to the post office to get their cash out, so they don’t get attacked.”

Another local man, who wished to remain anonymous, added: "You have to have your wits about you around here. Kids are stabbing each other, I heard about the £5 prostitutes and it being Britain’s roughest street, but that will be like a badge of honour to these idiots.

"Police hardly show their faces around here either, you can’t walk along the street without being offered sex or drugs. It’s like being in Amsterdam - but a million times more shadier. I like to think I can look after myself but even I don’t bother going out after dark now."

As recently as January 19 a huge cannabis factory was busted by police along Slade Road, which led to the discovery of £200,000 worth of plants. Yazir Mehmood, owner of Yaz Barbers, said people smoking weed was a big problem on the street with the smell coming into his shop.

The 38-year-old said: “I have been the owner of the barbers for 10 years and in that time the road has just got worse. There are so many HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) in the area and so they bring lots of new people to the street every day. Lots of released prisoners live in these too.

“On the street in the daylight there are always lots of drunk people and people drug dealing. People smoke weed all the time outside my barbers and the smell comes into the shop and it’s awful.

“I always leave at 7pm because I know after then I don’t feel safe on the street as this is when more people have been drinking and doing drugs.”

Pet shop owner Monica Phillips, 72, has run Birmingham Reptiles on Slade Road for 26 years and believes the issue lies with the people living in the HMOs. The mum-of-four said: “Drugs, drunks and prostitution, it all happens on the road. We were broken into a couple of months back and luckily got them on CCTV but the police didn’t want to know.

“Last night we had fly-tipping happen at the back of our store and we currently can’t get down the back alley because of it. The problem definitely lies within the HMOs and all the new faces that come through this part of Birmingham because of them. You are definitely very wary when you walk down the street. We get a lot of customers saying they are scared when they visit the shop.

“In the last couple of years there have been stabbings and muggings on this road. And with the times changing, I guess you get this everywhere but it is definitely worse on Slade Road. Since taking over this shop 26 years ago, the situation has definitely got worse.”