It’s a phrase I see used on here a hell of a lot, but I am not 100% certain I know what they are.

A definition and examples please.

Housing estates that local authorities use as a place to house all of the ‘problem’ families/individuals from within the borough.

Eventually become self perpetuating/populating ghettos of poverty and Jeremy Kyleesque fueds and infighting.

Usually they started out as desirable places to live an dthere’s often a few older residents still there from those times. They tend to live in fear of the behaviour of more recent arrivals.

I think you know what people are referring to when they use the term…but put it this way a driving instructor would probably think twice about taking a learner driver there to practice there turning in the road or parallel parking…

[img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bXNdrXYPZ28/TAUsXmCwLkI/AAAAAAAAEOg/cuSqxqqWYXo/s1600/01_guatemala_sinkhole2_r_1200.jpg[/img]

Scotland

It’s a sink estate as they’re all circleing the drain…

^^ that’s what I was thinking! (Jamie’s pics)
Yep, wouldn’t want to practice driving skills there 😯

Scotland

Is that why so many Scottish people seem to be prepared to do anything for their country except live there 😉

It is a pretty abhorrent term IMO a new way of saying Ghetto the connotation in my mind is one of waste disposal – most of the estates that are termed as such in the meeja are the kind that most people don’t get a lot of choice about living in.

In the dictionary it says, See Salford 6

[/url] Concrete Jungle by Gene Hunt, on Flickr[/img]

You may recognise the more familiar image from last year

I used to live in one of those tower blocks. Its beyond Grim! On the other hand, you could wander the local ‘Precinct’ and come back feeling intelligent, confident, stylish, healthy, articulate and charming

I’m Scottish and quite happy living here…
We could do with a bit more sunshine but hey ho, suppose something has to balance out all the fantastic riding there is up here!
Edit- oh aye, and independence, that too.

Stoner – Member

Scotland

Yeah like this…

as opposed to London..

Oh FFS dont respond to that childish pish. He put a smiley on so it shows he’s got a sense of humour and anyone who contradicts his point of view hasn’t…

Is that Inverary?

EDIT – The one not ablaze.

as opposed to London..

Looks warm at least…

*predicts another 6 page STW handwringer ending in a closure and possible bannning*

Edinburgh –

Or Edinburgh –

Both sink house estates of their own kind, one’s full of braying public school tools who couldnt get into Oxbridge or St Andrews….the other is Muirhouse…

Housing estates that local authorities use as a place to house all of the ‘problem’ families/individuals from within the borough.

Except I’m not aware of anywhere where thats true. Its an opinion of areas held by people who don’t go there. Its true you can find individuals with problems or needs in social housing schemes but its incorrect that they represent all, or most, or many of the people who live there. Even areas like Sighthill that are deliberately being run down and disassembled – mostly occupied by people like you and me and a smattering of more remarkable people with the odd well earned OBE.

By the same measure I’ve plenty of friends and acquaintances who’s lives are damaged and chaotic, effected by homelessness, violence, abuse, addiction and crime. Between them I wouldn’t say there is one kind of street, house or postcode where they typically live

@ MussEd – didn’t see the simley on Stoners post…why does he have the monopoloy on Humour?

It’s Campbeltown btw and hey I like a bit of a bonfire too 🙂

What exactly is a “Sink Estate”?

mostly misperception.

maccruiskeen – I think I was trying to describe what a ‘sink estate’ is seen as for the OP – whether any actually exist is probably another debate?

>Is that Inverary?<
>It’s Campbeltown btw<

Err…it’s Ullapool 😉

There’s one in ashford (Kent) it’s called Stanhope, on the outskirts, of shoddy cardboard walled houses built in the 70s and a few deals done with SE London councils to take a bit of ‘overspill’ in a railway/market town that then loses the huge railway yard and the market. Nobody would willingly move there, it has one of those square single story pubs in the middle with no windows and a huge tattooed landlord.

The most telling comment in this thread is the use of the term Jeremy Kyle, surely that says more about the social stingmatising and stereotyping that is currently prevalent than the term Sink Estate.

maccruiskeen – I think I was trying to describe what a ‘sink estate’ is seen as for the OP – whether any actually exist is probably another debate?

I’m curious why SBZ is asking in the first place

To create a long and rambling argument on here, probably ending in a thread closure? Trolling I believe is the term…

I had the misfortune of living on one as a teenager.. To say they dont exist is either nieve, deluded or a plain liar.

Mine was originally a large ‘temporary’ prefab estate built in the countryside to house constuction workers building the local power stations during the 60s. Still in use 30/40 years later to house council tenants even the council didnt want. It was a terrible place with just about everyone unemployed. The residents spent most of their time getting drunk or fighting each other. Their fortnightly break was a 5 mile bus trip to town with their giro. Thank god they demolished it a few years ago.

Binners, you are a former inmate of the University of Salford and I claim my £5.

sink estates in my opinion do exist, but are as much a result of housing policy as anything else. If you can qualify for council housing you probably have issues of some description. Be it drugs, single parent, asylum etc. What you end up with an estate of problems.

Think why so few are happy to live on a mixed new build estate with social tenants?

Binners, you are a former inmate of the University of Salford and I claim my £5.

I am indeedy. Did you have that pleasure too? 😀

If you can qualify for council housing you probably have issues of some description. Be it drugs, single parent, asylum etc. What you end up with an estate of problems.

Think why so few are happy to live on a mixed new build estate with social tenants?

But you’ll find that mix of people anywhere. The social services don’t have to invent that mix. I live on posh country sporting estate, theres a shiny new Bentley and two very big speedboats in the courtyard. there were two pairs of red trousers out at the weekend. But two of my immediate neighbours live in the state of crisis you describe, the council didn’t place them there. Being a ‘problem’ or having problems are not the qualifying criteria for the allocation social housing or typical at all of people who occupy social housing.

Most of what is termed ‘sink estate’ up here is cheap, pre fab or semi permanent housing thrown up quickly in the 60s and 70s to provide for a fast growing population when old terraces were cleared. Often built on land surrounding tower blocks, these communities usually have a central row of shops, pub, school etc and are quite closed off from surrounding areas. Predominantly council housing when built, a lot of the property is now owned either by residents (fiercely proud IME) or private land lords (dont care much ime). Cheaper housing and unscrupulous land lords leads to councils moving difficult tenants in and also means large family groups can live close together (often on the same street).

These areas generally have higher than average unemployment and substance misuse (often related) and this is often multi generational. Mental health problems, heart disease and breathing problems also have higher incidence. In Leeds, these areas are often very white.

I imagine the term sink hole is derogatory, suggesting that that is where all the acumen and muck gets caught.

having problems are not the qualifying criteria for the allocation social housing or typical at all of people who occupy social housing.[/quote

having tried to apply for social housing, it is points based, problems mean points.

limited supply more problems gets you home.

Still quite a few like that in Glasgow- Tarfside oval is one that comes to mind- prob cos I’m there so often when working!
Council spruces them up every 20 years or so. Either by flattening the old houses then building nice new ones and moving the old residents back in. Or, more recently, slap external insulation panels on and rendering them..

having tried to apply for social housing, it is points based, problems mean points.

limited supply more problems gets you home.

Its not my experience that people I know who live in social housing (including those currently in the process of moving into social housing) have problems. It is a problem that there isn’t enough social housing, and that some housing is poorly managed and maintained. A crisis situation might jump the queue but problems don’t preclude you joining the queue or getting to the front, in time. Where social housing is very poorly managed that theres a high turn over and void rate. People who are in real crisis – the homeless, the abused, the mentally ill tend to be placed in those voids but thats temporary shelter – although those people have a roof over their head for the night they’re still homeless – its not social housing.

theblackmount – Member

>Is that Inverary?<
>It’s Campbeltown btw<

Err…it’s Ullapool

Sorry – ur right I posted in haste!

MussEd – See that picture of Muirhouse you posted up – they are all gone now. To be replaced by some well designed and well built houses.

I did Binners. Did you ever go in the pub at the bottom? I seem to remember someone got shot there a couple of years ago.

Glupton – I know that, having spent a considerable proportion of my working career dealing with incidents there before they were flattened. I used the image to illustrate the two very different types of estate still found in Edinburgh and indeed probably most UK cities…

However this re-affirms my belief you know the answer to your own question held in your OP and you’re asking to start an argument…it’s all gone a bit slow on this now though? Can’t see 6 page opus happening now.

See, I didnt say that I didn’t know what they are. What I said was “I am not 100% certain I know what they are”. Subtle difference, but different nonetheless.

The reason I posted this thread is that I see the term used all the time, but cant for the life of me think of a place where the definition in my head actually exists.