This situation is not much different across the whole of the country, especially in areas of so-called deprivation and high unemployment, where the only alternative to having no work is booze and drugs. This does not of course excuse the yob behaviour that we are witness to, but it goes some way to offering an explanation.

Naturally, the police have abandoned the streets, not solely because they can't be bothered, but because their hands are tied behind their backs, and they would be bogged down with paperwork if they start pulling in the drunken, drugged up yobs.

We are thus left with a situation of mostly feral youths running riot because they know that they can do it, and nobody will lift a finger to stop them. After all, we're only a common valley town, with no claim whatsoever to a decent life.

I've seen this scumbag behaviour on a regular basis on the trains on my commutes to and from Cardiff to work. It's an overall symptom of a loss of manners and courtesy from top to bottom. Let's face it, does the behaviour of our politicians, both locally and nationally offer any kind of example of behaviour? We see the grab all you can mentality at work in their actions, and it filters down to the yobs in the street.

The riots in English cities back in August gave us a glimpse of how standards have plummeted. But then, with MPs, councillors and AMs ripping us off and looting with false accounting, and over indulged, undeserving expenses claims, is it any wonder that the yobs saw fit to riot?

Similarly on the streets of Aberdare, the feral yobs are free to harass and intimidate people because nobody has the guts to give the coppers the necessary powers they need to deal with them. They've got their rights after all, whereas you as an ordinary citizen going about your business, have none at all.

"town is like cairo market, full of beggars, thieves and ne're do wells."

Are you sure it's the town you're talking about there and not the council's debating chamber? The description you offer would fit both.

yeah its a bit broken in aberdare including the communist from animal farm, two legs bad two legs and three arms better

I left school in 1963. I went to a secondary modern school in Penywaun, or Rhydywaun to be more precise. As I remember, Aberdare at that time was a relatively prosperous town, with every shop open and businesses thriving. If you were unemployed back then it was because you wanted to be, because you were too damn lazy to get a job.

I, and all my mates, went into apprenticeships, another feature absent from the jobs market in modern day Aberdare, that's if any jobs market now exists here. Even if you weren't very bright intellectually, you could still get a job doing something to earn your keep and give you some level of dignity.

No boarded up properties, and definitely no druggies or drunks on the streets. In fact, such problems were never even heard of, nor even considered. The police regularly patrolled the town, so these dregs would never have had a chance to settle into their unenviable lifestyle.

Of course, compared to some areas of the country Aberdare was a poor area even then, but by today's standards it was booming. Still, that's what we were used to and it was the norm to us.

The old Aberdare Leader newspaper was a real newspaper, not an advertising medium with snippets of news like it is now. Every week it would carry court cases of who had been done for underage drinking or "committing a nuisance" as urinating in the streets was called.

Being drunk and disorderly and using foul language were also listed as being criminal offences. They still are criminal offences, but there are no coppers around to enforce them, so they might as well not be on the statutue book, and we as members of the public have to put up with this gutter type behaviour, and keep our mouths shut about it for fear of recriminations.

Councillors carried out their duties without payment, not like now where being a councillor is a first class ticket on the gravy train, and the electorate are treated with contempt.

All I can say from all that in response to other negative observations on this thread, is that if this is progress, then I'm a nuclear physicist. Aberdare, like the country as a whole, is sinking into a morass of hopelessness for our young people, who are leaving school and college, up to their eyes in debt, and with qualifications which under a saner economic system would make them of great benefit to our community.

Instead of that, they have but one option and that's to move out, assuming of course they can find work in another part of the country, or even in another country altogether, that would be more appreciative of their skills.

Finally, I have to ask, how deep does this town have to sink before something is actually done to lift it out of its travails? And, how much are our local councillors willing to sacrifice to share what the rest of us have to tolerate? So far, from what I see of them and their milking of the system for all it's worth, we are bound to sink a lot deeper, because they don't give a damn either.

If Dr Who decided to visit Aberdare in the year 2022. What would he find when he stepped out of his tardis?

Closed shops.
300 Hairdressers
250 Building societies
5 Cash converters
50 Nightclubs
And 1000 chip shops and fast food take-aways

Oh Also high percentage of druggies and 1 community police officer.

BUT DAMN one good thing, the pavements would look good.