Most of what has been said in the above posts is without a doubt true… the ‘few’ decent folk in Ilkeston are either to old, to young or to poor to move to a better place (town, village… county etc).
My wife and I have had enough, and after years of talking about it, we are off! When my wife and I first married (she’s not from around here), I took her “up town” for a beer, one warm spring Friday evening. We sat outside the Market Inn (near the fountain), during which we witnessed many bottles/glasses broken, girls fighting etc. My wife was absolutely aghast, and that was the last time she wanted to go out on the town, which was more than fine by me… been there done that… grown up somewhat!

The majority of “youth” are just brain dead, trouble causing no-hopers. The “species” does have one good thing going for them, and that is that they usually have a relatively short life span, normally punctuated by absent periods (at her majesties pleasure), and usually terminating quietly in a dimly lit smelly little flat during/after a bad trip or booze session and pill-popping spree! Some like to go out in a blaze of glory ie fighting another of the same species, usually over something or nothing eg spilt beer, looking at ‘my’ woman, wrong ‘bling bling’ etc… On occasion, they may live to a ripe old age… 40+ when they may be seen sitting on strategically placed benches scattered around the town supping their carling extra strong lager, and in the evenings propping up a bar somewhere, looking around for someone (anyone) to talk to, so that they can brag just how hard they are, this is always accompanied by them stating their name, then asking if you have heard of them.
They are to be avoided at all costs, as they are unpredictable in nature, possibly dangerous or at best just f—-ng boring and smelly.
The most alarming thing about these creatures is their capacity to breed… it would seem that they have little or no energy when it comes to finding useful employment, house keeping or even personal hygiene, however they do seem to have energy abound when it comes to ‘shaggin’, which in my book puts them on-par with **** and other ******, and as such should be ************.

I would like to write more, however I am just setting off to work (Sunday 11 am), of which some of the proceeds (Tax) will no doubt benefit the existence and help ‘sustain’ the ‘pond-life’ mentioned above. Personally I would pay double the Tax if I could be assured that it would be spent on gas or bullets to be used eradicating the **** from our streets… dream on.

Where are we my wife and I going to?? New Zealand! The reason being is this… we will be as far away from this stinking ******** as possible.

Ilkeston,
The home of many a washed up loser. The ***** love this place, they will never leave and prefer to hang around and multiply.
To describe Ilkeston i would have to say that it is a throw back mining town. Traditionally it was a place for men who worked and played hard. It is situated on the border of nottingham and derby, therefore it has a split football team fan base. Ilkeston is also well known for being a racist town, you can see the bnp out there with a stall asking for people to vote for them. Mind you they do turn out nice with ironed clothes and polished boots, which is more than can be said for the rest of its population.
The nightlife starts on a thursday and continues till sunday night, with friday being the busiest. All the local pubs are situated round the “top”of town. The prefered method to drink is have one in every pub in quick sucession and continue in a lap of the town. Past eleven it is off to the wine vaults or the poplar. The wine vaults is a haven for the drug taking **** youth, they wear the latest tracksuits and fake burberry. the women all have kids, which i am sure are left with microchips and a dvd of shrek to keep them occupied. If you fancy the other place its the poplar. Another dingy dank pub with **** music and teenagers so out of there mind on drugs they dont buy many drinks. Both place have frequent fights and its the only place on earth where a signal to fight is purley by looking at someone. The tattoo’s are abundant and on display and the lads all have football insignia tattoo’s.
After the pubs its off to one of the plentiful fast food establishments. Most of these people eat at these place for all three main meals and probably pop to macdonalds for a quick snack. A fight outside any of these places rarley raises an eyebrow.
The general youth or ***** of the town are into awful cars looking like they have been covered in velcro and ram raided halfords, none have tax or mots and insurance is a joke. You are cool if you have been to prison, deal drugs, **** people up for no reason in gangs and have several kids with different women and fiddle the dole and have a council house.
All in all a very dim town with no prospects and no nice people. the place needs to be fenced off and kept seperate from ordinary people. i could go on for days about how bad this place really is, but i dont want to bore you.
I work all over the country and have seen some so called “bad” places, but this puts them in the shade.