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THE VILLAGE OF Horden in county Durham was once a thriving mining community.
Now, however, it is deserted, the closure of coal mines ripping the heart out of the north England town.
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The housing association that manages the council houses, Accent, says that government funding has been withdrawn for repairing the homes. This, they say, makes any repairs infeasible. They add that they have spent £8.7 million on refurbishments, but people just don’t want to live in Horden, 24 miles south of Newcastle.
To get rid of the homes, Accent offered Durham council 130 houses for just £1 (€1.36). The council declined.
Channel 4′s Ciaran Jenkins visited the town this week and was told the town is “like Beirut”.
Local MP Grahame Morris last week called for a comprehensive renewal plan that would include demolishing homes. It would also see the council selling homes for £1 to residents, who would then get a low interest £30,000 loan to renovate the units.
Unemployment in Durham is around 8%, almost 3% higher than the UK average.
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A heavily subsidised industry that was losing a lot of money. It would be closed by now even if Thatcher hadn’t done it.
Never liked her but it doesn’t mean everything she did was wrong. The unions were at least partially to blame for the problems.
Long term the mines made no sense but you can’t remove the one think that lets a town exist and not replace it. The closing down should have happened gradually with training for new jobs and attracting new business to the area occurring at the same time
Yes because Co Durham includes town like well Durham which have the university etc. which reduces the unemployment rate, but go outside of that area and it gets pretty grim
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