RESIDENTS of a once-thriving area say it has now become a ghost town where everyone is desperate to leave.
Locals of Dagenham, East London, said they have "had enough" of the borough as old hotspots have closed and "nothing changes".
Despite once being a bustling industrial area thanks to a Ford factory, it has now declined so much that people move as far away as America.
Pat McVeigh and his wife Cathy, who have lived in Dagenham for decades, told MyLondon: "We have lived here all our lives but we want to get out because we have had enough.
"Everyone around here is fed up, even all our old friends have moved."
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Fellow resident Lemmy Kimani, 18, has gone one step further and has found a way out.
He said: "It's always been run down. I'm happy they are trying to change it, but growing up here nothing much changes.
"Living in Dagenham you kind of get used to it.
"I would not recommend anyone comes and lives here, everyone is trying to get out of there."
Luckily for him, he has been offered a scholarship to play rugby for a university in Seattle, USA, allowing him to leave the place behind.
Plans to develop 3,500 new homes on Dagenham Green were approved last year, which the council hopes will ease the discontent of residents.
Many of the complaints center on Princess Parade, a row composed of derelict shops and former businesses that are now occupied by churches.
The council emphasised that the street is privately owned, but recognised that it was in "poor condition".
Steve Furby, who has lived in the area all his life, added: "A lot of things go like this, people do not take pride in their property."
It comes after the residents of a town dubbed the UK's worst insisted it was wrongly slammed by tourists and has "potential".
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Meanwhile, the 50 worst places to live in England were revealed by a new study.
