Inside drug-ravaged ‘zombie’ town where crumbling homes cost little as £5k

IN a green space at the centre of Horden's maze of boarded-up houses and vacant shops stands Marra, a 9ft sculpture of a miner with his heart ripped from his chest.

It couldn't be a more fitting reflection of a community which has suffered the same fate.

Artist Ray Lonsdale's statue, erected in 2015 by Horden parish council at a cost of £19,000 to illustrate the demise of Durham's mining communities, couldn't have been placed in a more appropriate spot.

The coastal village entered a death spiral of decline that hasn't halted since the colliery closed in 1987, throwing 4,000 men on the dole.

In that 36-year period "nowt good has happened in Horden" according to one resident, who paints a grim picture of daily life in a village where the signs of decay are clear on every street corner.

It's a place plagued by drug use - "crack, smack, blues, yellows, they'll take anything" - and where even the wrecked and boarded up houses aren't safe from burglary.

Drug users have become so desperate that they are breaking in to steal any copper pipes and cables left behind to sell as scrap metal in the hope of raising enough cash for their next fix.

Statistically it is one of the most dangerous places in County Durham with 178.9 crimes per 1,000 people and 6,807 crimes committed in 2023.

The new Labour government, elected on a mandate for change, has its work cut out to turn around the fortunes of Horden, something the party was unable to achieve the last time it was in power.

But that's what residents here are demanding.

"We're sick of living like this," says Les Wright, 61, who formerly worked in security but is now in receipt of sickness benefit.

"This place is crazy and it's getting worse. People don't dare go out of their front doors at night because of all the crime, you could get mugged at any time during the day, let alone at night.

Read more: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2916777...

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