I went to Dudley to find out what locals think has changed the most about the town
It’s fair to say that Dudley has changed over the years.
We travelled to Dudley to find out what locals say has changed the most about the area in recent decades.
Lots of residents had plenty of things to say about what could improve most about the town centre, with a couple of individuals expressing that it just not the same of how it used to be.
Many said that the biggest shift, is the lack of businesses and shops operating in the town.
Patricia Harper, 87 from Dudley said that Merry Hill shopping complex has changed things in the area.
She said: “The market, the shops, everything has gone! Everything we had in Dudley has gone well. I remember the hotel being down there. The skating rink. There was an arcade up there as well, where we used to go as children and all the cinemas. So it's just completely changed.”
When asked about what’s altered the most in the town, Patricia said it was the arrival of Merry Hill shopping complex in the 1980s.
She said: “Merry Hill, everything was sent down there.”
“In the early ‘70s I could go and get a nice suit from a well-known shop. But now it's all gone and took them out of Dudley.” When asked if he thought Dudley could be revived,” Colin John Davis, 68, Gornal told the Express & Star.
He continued: “It has really gone downhill. You ask anybody. Especially around my age. We've seen a difference over the years from when I was a teenager in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. It was lovely up here and the market was always full, You couldn't get round!”
For Raven Dixon Biggs, 32 from Tipton:
“I would say the biggest change is the lack of businesses to actually come and visit. There's hardly anything here and as quite a young person there's nothing here for me to actually buy.
“I need foundation, today, I had to kind of scour a couple of shops to try and find that.
Raven suggested these three things to get Dudley back up and running again.
She said: “I think the first three things is, number one: leadership that actually care about the community and are pushing for the change that it needs.
“Number two, a business development department, Dudley doesn’t have that and there's an array of small businesses here, especially in the Plaza Mall that are struggling because of the tram issues.
“Number three, the tram! Let's fix it. Let's get to the bottom of when it's going to end. The chaos that it's created for people that live in Tipton, even if you live in Oldbury.
“Everyone's severely affected by the tram roadworks.
“We don't know when that's going to end. Who's fighting for us?”
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