‘You hang out on the street, drinking, getting into trouble’

Craig Tressel, 24, says leaving his childhood home in Brymore Road last summer has given him a new perspective on the area.

The trainee alarm technician says a lack of investment prompts children to pick up bad habits, and a bleak job market makes it harder to shift them.

He said: “Outside the block of flats I live in now in Wimbledon there’s a communal area for kids; an astroturf pitch for football, and a park about five minutes away.

“Of course you get loads of fast food, street gangs and drugs, but people have choice.

“What’s there to do here [Northgate] for kids?”

With a lack of entertainment, teenagers in the area, according to Mr Tressel, start underage drinking at the weekends; eating bad food, and getting into trouble.

Decent job prospects are sorely lacking, he says.

“How many jobs, wellpaying jobs, are there in Canterbury?” said Mr Tressel, who was unemployed for two years after leaving East Kent College in 2015.

“So you hang out on the street, drinking, getting into trouble, and then you leave education and there’s nothing at the end.

“So what you do is carry on, you don’t ever really grow up.

“You get caught up in bad habits, which ultimately make you unhealthy.”

To address the issues, more money has to be spent on community centres and sports clubs, he says.

“I know we have the Northgate Centre, but that should be open to the young most nights, with clubs and activities that people actually enjoy,” he said.

“I don’t know what can be done about jobs, but I know that more people have to either leave the area or stay with rubbish pay – which always makes things worse, when rubbish food is cheap.”

Craig Tressel, 24, says leaving his childhood home in Brymore Road last summer has given him a different perspective on the area