Territorial Tensions
After 9/11 and 7/7 Muslim leaders in Lancaster became concerned about the disenfranchisement of Muslim youth in the city and met with different agencies to discuss public perception of and concern about widening gaps between diverse ethnic and racial communities in British society. At the same time meetings and discussions with community centre managers from Skerton and the Marsh, the police, community representatives at the CVS Hub meetings, Community Learning Network and Traveller Education Service all noted concerns about territorial tensions amongst young people in the Lancaster District. These were normally seen as tensions and conflicts between small groups of young men living in different residential areas in the District.
A wider social and political context also impacted the tensions: the rise of Islamaphobia; the fielding of and in some places the election of BNP councillors; talk of parallel communities; barriers being dismantled in Europe with the rising number of migrants and the rise in drugs, crime and organized gangs in other areas of the UK.
Poverty & Class
Economics, class and government policies play a role,
“All the communities got on well up to the 60s. The tensions coincided with some people being better off and buying houses off estates and council houses suddenly getting a stigma and bad reputation. In 30s and 40s council houses were seen as a superior house to the rented terraced house. Suddenly some people can afford to get off the estates and turn their noses up at the council houses.”
Marsh Residents
The demise of the wallpaper industry contributed to the unemployment in Marsh and Ryelands and the lack of skills meant that unemployed people could not compete in the new labour market creating vulnerability to exploitation through drugs and crime.