An old documentary featuring one of Scotland's most deprived council estates has resurfaced online nearly 40 years after it was filmed.
The 1984 documentary focusing on the resilience of Edinburgh residents has been a comeback online and is available to watch on YouTube. Craigmillar: Down But Not Out was originally broadcasted as a Scotland Today Reports special on STV.
The film featured interviews with residents, young and old, from the communities of Niddrie and Craigmillar, Edinburgh Live reports.
It focused on how huge social and economic problems plaguing the area were being tackled as filmmakers discussed issues with youth workers, politicians and community activists, such as Craigmillar Festival founder Helen Crummy.
Thatcher-era Craigmillar was among the most impoverished communities in Western Europe, with employment rates twice as high as the Scottish national average and a lack of investment in the area.
Attempted suicides in the community were three times the Edinburgh average and incidents of violence, theft and fire-raising were alarmingly common in the area in the 1980s.
The documentary explained that many youngsters turned to a life of crime and drugs, with no hope of a brighter tomorrow.
“It’s a scheme of zombies,” says youth worker Richard D’Arcy in the film.
“I’ve never seen nothing [sic] like this and I’ve stayed here all my life.
Community activists fought hard to improve conditions in Craigmillar in the 1980s, eventually managing to set up a new library and arts centre, and pushing for regeneration.
Councillor and Craigmillar Festival Society co-chairman David Brown is one of a number of voices in the film adamant that Craigmillar’s plight is part of a deliberate local government policy to run the area down by moving problem families there rather than spreading them throughout the city.
He tells interviewers: “I’m convinced there is an actual systematic running down of the area, which, if it is true, is quite scandalous.”
Conservative councillor Ralph Brereton controversially suggested issues in the area were the fault of local residents after the allegation was put to him.
He says: “We [the council] don’t deliberately create ghettos, but there’s no doubt that if an area acquires for itself a bad reputation then the people who would be most useful in that community won’t go there.”
During the 25-minute long documentary, a group of local teenagers are questioned about crime and drugs in a fascinating segment.
One young man spoke candidly about his experience and told of how he and his friends faced prejudice, being banned from many places due to the bad name of their area.
When interviewers asked the group about why a recent riot had occurred, the boys believed a lack of things to do in the local community meant such incidents were inevitable.
“It would happen all the time, if we had the chance,” reveals one boy. “Any chance you get, you’ll break into something,” says another.
Asked about drug misuse, one of the teenagers gives a disturbingly honest answer: “[Heroin] that’s just as big a problem as glue-sniffing the now”.
Richard D’Arcy is similarly upfront when it comes to examining the reasons behind the rise in anti-social behaviour, saying: “[The kids] are glue-sniffing, they’re breaking into houses, breaking into cars - breaking into neighbours houses, which is worse. Y’know, they’ve no’ got any scruples or principles now.
“[It’s] unemployment and not enough money. They’ve no clothes and are not provided for by anybody, so they go and steal. I’m no’ condoning them stealing - it’s no’ right them stealing - but they go and steal because they’ve got nothing.”
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