Video: We ask Brummies about the grottiest areas of Birmingham

There are many areas across Birmingham that locals say are in urgent need of attention. I'm here in this, for the most part, beautiful city today to ask people here which areas they consider to be the grottiest - “grottiness” of course being something I will leave up to their interpretation.

Des says: “Whoa, that's a tough one. So I live in Erdington. And there are parts of Erdington High Street which are awful. We've got so called police, urban police, whatever they call themselves, going up and down, trying to keep it tidy, keep people off it, but there doesn't seem to be any respect for where you live.”

Damon says: “To be honest. I think that every area in Birmingham has got a grotty element. I don't think there's, like, bits of Birmingham that are more grotty than others. I think that we've got similar issues in lots of areas and it's just these are the bits the council needs to sort themselves out with, like homelessness and things like this, you know, these are prevalent in the city centre.

“I live in the city centre, and that's got its grotty areas too even though it looks nice to the tourists you know, so I don't think we should be looking at it in terms of this area's grotty that area is grotty. There's grotty bits everywhere, you know.”

Andy says: “I mean, Ladywood. Yeah, he lives in Ladywood, it’s not a very nice area. It's just a bunch of students and it's those people just doing weed all the time where you like, hear a drug dealer pull up outside.”

Scott says: “I don't know that I've seen enough of the city to describe it as run down. In fact, when I got here, I was talking to my partner and saying this feels like a city, but not like Singapore, or Kuala Lumpur where, where it feels more jumbled up and grimy.

“In fact this has actually got sort of an unnatural polish to it. I would say and if you look at this sort of trappings of colonialism, they feel very empowering, but down at the street level I don't see anything as grotty. It just feels human to me, and human in a in a very inclusive way.”

Despite some areas being undeniably grotty, as Birmingham continues to grow and develop there is hope that even the areas which struggle most will see some revitalisation over the coming years. Perhaps though, embracing a bit of mild grot here and there is an integral part of Brummie identity.