'Machetes and drug deals': Residents say this is our normal

Lincolnshire Police issued a closure order on a house in Gainsborough following reports of anti-social behaviour

Police say they are clamping down on anti-social behaviour in a part of Lincolnshire residents say is crime-ridden. Sarah-May Buccieri went to find out what it is like to live there.

A house strewn in graffiti, once a hive of anti-social activity, now stands eerily quiet. With windows replaced with wooden boards, it is illegal to even step foot inside after Lincolnshire Police issued a closure order on the property.

I arrive with a cameraman and immediately an army of CCTV cameras follow us. As we move down High Street in Gainsborough Town South, they move.

We are being watched.

As a man leaves his home, I accidentally spook him when I ask if he has a spare moment to tell me about the area.

He looks over his shoulder and asks me to assure him he will remain anonymous. I agree.

"There's been all sorts on this street," he says.

"There's been machetes, shots through windows, there's been crack deals and cannabis farms.

"Gainsborough is what it is," he shrugs.

When I ask this man, whose face has sunk deeper into his hoodie, whether closing a property will stop anti-social behaviour, he chuckles.

"It'll stop the anti-social behaviour in that house."

The area is closely monitored by CCTV

Down the road, a laminated letter glows slightly in the sunlight.

It is stuck front and centre on the closed house. It describes how police made the decision to enforce a closure order after four years of anti-social behaviour and crime, which stemmed from the property.

Lincolnshire Police says this is the 10th closure order in Gainsborough in the past 18 months.

Insp Micheal Head has joined me outside.

"If someone enters, they could face arrest," he says.

The police, local council and a private letting company all worked together to obtain the order.

"We've historically had a problem in under reporting in Gainsborough," Mr Head says.

"I feel as though public confidence has increased, we're getting more and more reports.

"All the closure orders we've done so far have successfully resulted in the tenants being evicted from that property."

In 2024, police statistics show there was, on average, one report per day of anti-social behaviour in the south of Gainsborough. One month reached 49.

As we move through the area, we bump into a utility worker, he is wearing a large bodycam on his chest.

He, like many others, did not want to talk, but he warned us to be wary of a drug deal happening two streets down.

A sign bolted to a lamp-post warns people against fly-tipping. A few metres away a truck mops up a pile of rubbish blocking the path.

We venture towards a dark tunnel, under a bridge, it used to have lights, but they are all smashed now.

We speak to another person. She has a look around her, presumably checking no one is watching.

Like the other man I met, she did not want to show her face.

"Some months, you'll get people putting windows through, doors through," she explains.

"You'll get arguing, quite a few drug dealers and smoking weed and that round here."

She does not flinch; she tells me this is her normal, she has always lived here.

"I suppose if you're not used to it and you move to this area, you're not going to like it," she adds.

"You're going to feel scared."

Letting agent Jo Swan has not given up hope that the area can one day lose its antisocial tag

But the idea of a crime-ridden reality is not accepted by everyone.

Outside the closed house, there is a woman fiddling with a bolt on the gated front door.

Jo Swan, from Swan Sales & Lettings, runs several houses in the area, including one next door to the house that is closed. She said she worked with police to get the order.

"I could've had a street party down here," she says as she recalls the moment the order went through.

"I'm down here daily to make sure the tenants are in good spirits, and they are.

"They're safer now."

Jo hopes to improve the neighbourhood for good.

"If you just move good tenants into an area, a bad area will turn around, you'll have a good area," she says.

"Then children can play in the street.

When asked if she has hope, she nods instantly.

"Absolutely, I just want it to be a good place to live," she says.

"I want to turn these streets around."

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