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Shuuut uup! TOWIT takes on TOWIE as the only way

2:00pm Sunday 12th February 2012 in News Exclusive By Neil Watts

SKIP: The Facebook page highlights some of the less attractive aspects of Tolladine SKIP: The Facebook page highlights some of the less attractive aspects of Tolladine

YOU’VE heard of the The Only Way is Essex, well now it would seem The Only Way is Tolladine.

The day-to-day activities of the Tolladine area of Worcester have become an internet sensation following the launch of a Facebook page.

The Only Way Is Tolly was set up on Tuesday and has already attracted more than 1,400 ‘likes’, with members of the community busy sharing photos, comments and memories – all with a fine line in dry humour.

TOWIT was set up by Laura Robinson, Kimberly Probert and Lisa Burfitt to provide people with a fun way to interact, while also highlighting local issues that need addressing.

Miss Robinson, aged 26, said: “We set this page up as a bit of a laugh for the Tolladine community. We see our page as entertainment for people who nine times out of 10 have their own problems and can come to us to escape. We did not expect this – it’s really good.

“Our aim is just to have a laugh, keep it light-hearted and not get in an argument.

“We do not tolerate racism, bullying, violence or slander and the people in every one of our pictures are willing participants.”

However, Miss Robinson said that there was also a serious message behind the site.

“Worcester Community Housing does not take Tolladine seriously and it is very rare that we come across an estate manager asking the people what we want. With the pics of the rubbish, hopefully we will boost WCH to get it moved and get it cleaned up a bit. The area needs funding.”

Stewart Mountfield, chief executive of WCH, said its commitment to the area was reflected in investing in a new play area and working with youngsters, parents and traders through various schemes and partnerships.

He said: “Anybody who thinks we do not care really doesn’t know us or what we get involved in. Tolladine is an area that has had a lot of attention from us and will continue to do so. We care passionately for all parts of the city we work in.”

A spokesman for West Mercia Police said a couple of complaints about the site had been received and one was being investigated.

Other sites focusing on areas in the city, including Dines Green, Warndon and Ronkswood, have also been set up.

• 'Like' the Worcester News Facebook page here.

• You can find the TOWIT page here (note: offensive language)

Comments(36)

Andy1955 says...
2:43pm Sun 12 Feb 12

As an Ex-Dines Greener, I would like to say well done! The Facebook page is reaching parts of the community that would otherwise be isolated.
It's all good fun and I love the good hearted banter. Certainly gives me a smile.
Thanks everyone.

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cylon says...
2:48pm Sun 12 Feb 12

"Worcester Community Housing does not take Tolladine seriously/The area needs funding."
Ironically, the last posting from the people that MADE the facebook "only way is tolly site" just announced they "did a runner from a curry shop and jumped a taxi". If the people that live there can't behave in a decent way, why should WCH spend lots on improving it if it's just going to be wasted.

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TOWIT26 says...
4:09pm Sun 12 Feb 12

In our defence cylon, our page is fun filled page, anything to keep the banter going!!! this is why we have so many followers, for the laughs! What is wrong with a "downtrodden community" wanting to be better??? regardless of what we do or don't. I am thinking you are very lucky and don't have to rely on social housing to house you, but a large percent of the city does, so is there any wrong in wanting more? regards

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worcester86 says...
4:22pm Sun 12 Feb 12

It's called having a laugh.. noones jumping taxis. Why would anyone publish that online, really?

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TOWIT26 says...
4:26pm Sun 12 Feb 12

My point exactly! Worcester86.

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Hack says...
5:26pm Sun 12 Feb 12

Long time since I'be been up Tolladine, so I'll pass on the specifics. But, I love the use of scial media in a quasi viral way to make a statement/protest. WCH only hoist themselves with such a standard flat, PR comment. Nice that WN is also part of this debate. Keep at it.

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lizzyloolah says...
6:00pm Sun 12 Feb 12

Bit of a sweeping generalisation, Cylon! I live in Tolladine. I have never jumped a taxi. Neither do I think that I dont deserve to have a decent living standards just because a 'tongue in cheek' comment has gone right over your head.

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Mrs-mabbit says...
6:59pm Sun 12 Feb 12

T.O.W.I.T is a fab fun page but also represents how normal people live and maybe seeing some of these pictures of the rubbish and filth the community and WCH will pull their finger out and help improve the area for everyone keep up the good work T.O.W.I.T girls xxx

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CYNIC_AL says...
7:01pm Sun 12 Feb 12

The should do one for Ronkswood too...

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Mrs-mabbit says...
8:18pm Sun 12 Feb 12

Other areas in worcester have got pages but theyre not as original and popular as T.O.W.I.T because they take themselves too seriously and have lost the whole aspect of why the page was set up for light hearted banter and fun .

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Biggles says...
10:36pm Sun 12 Feb 12

You could always obtain mortgages, and buy your properties, then you'd be able to do (within reason), whatever you wish with them.
.
Or
.
You can live in taxpayer subsidised housing (what you refer to as social housing), and whinge on the internet !

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Jabbadad says...
1:24am Mon 13 Feb 12

You really are very sad Biggles. Not all Social Housing is subsidised unless you feel that rents of £90 per week for a 2 bed flat are subsidised plus Rates of almost £25 per week, or over £130 per week for sheltered Housing. And gone are the days of picking the phone up for electrical repairs to be done free. Now there is a call-out charge of £25 plus the tube for a fluorescent tube to be changed for our older most vulnerable people, even when it's a Health & Safety Issue.
And there will be maximum rent rises (encouraged by this Tory Government) again in April, which will wipe out any pension increase.
And my mum bought her house twice, once by paying rent for over 35 years then having a mortgage and buying it under the Maggie Scheme of right to buy.

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lizzyloolah says...
8:37am Mon 13 Feb 12

Sad and ignorant! Do you not watch the News, Biggles? Tried getting a foot on the property ladder lately?

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mayall8808 says...
10:14am Mon 13 Feb 12

Tolladine has had millions spent on it over the years from various funding with refits, double glazing, landscaping etc and it looks just as bad now as it always has, not all the people are the same but its exactly that the people minority who have no respect for anything that gets the place a bad name.

There are other areas in Worcester too and i add i worked on council repairs years ago and some people are not fit to live in pig styes.

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ushmush says...
10:39am Mon 13 Feb 12

I fail to see how fly-tipping and rubbish bags in green recycling bins is the council's fault!

The unemployed within the community should be made to clear up.

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Jabbadad says...
11:21am Mon 13 Feb 12

I trust that those who comment against and blame social housing for most things, can be seen out in their own and other communities with a Bin Liner and Picker doing their bit.
I have been out many times with young adults, children (all supervised) and adults in areas where those who live there cannot keep their area tidy, and it's not their rubbish.
It is so rewarding.
Having been born & raised in a Council House (and proud of it) and had family businesses on two Council estates. I know which people, are the most grateful for help, it's those who think society have left them behind. And of course not only have they been left behind, the politicians didn't recognise that they were there in the first case.
So ease off you Cart Blanche critics, and realise that you are blessed that your destiny was not among the poor in this society.

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TOWIT26 says...
2:44pm Mon 13 Feb 12

yes Tolladine is a council estate and yes the majority of people that live here do not work, fly tipping on this estate is not down to people being lazy, it is down to lack of funds, yes we have bilford road tip, but without a car or money for petrol i am afraid people can not get to the tip! which resorts to fly tipping!. I fail to see the difference between people in social housing and people in a mortgaged home, apart from the obvious that you have the luxury of where you want to live. My partner is from Barnt Green and the same problem exists there. But let me tell you how many estates are so close that when you run out of essentials like toilet roll, you can ask a neighbour and they would not batter an eye lid! ;-) I just hope that "biggles" never loses his job, his wife leaves him and his rosy life style fails him! because the need for social housing, rent paid by DSS or not is a much needed, much appreciated luxury to someone who is homeless and uses maggs day center for lunch out! Now whether you for or against tolladine or just completely neutral, Tolladine has a good community and good people live here, but some lack education and some are just oblivious to how they live, what is one persons palace maybe another persons pig sty! and before you run our estate down, think of this it could be you next year!

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mayall8808 says...
3:14pm Mon 13 Feb 12

Pride is the word here, i was brought up on a council estate as was my wife and we got out and worked for a better life, nothing wrong in living on a council estate at all but the comarardary and taking a pride in keeping the surroundings pleasant has gone same as the council inspectors who came round and insisted you kept the place tidy or you were evicted. I know the job situation isnt good and (never will be with this government mob in) but if you want to work then you can find it. I did anything i could so as to make a better life for myself, you just get excuses now.

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Rainbowdust99 says...
7:10pm Mon 13 Feb 12

TOWIT26 says...

"yes Tolladine is a council estate and yes the majority of people that live here do not work, fly tipping on this estate is not down to people being lazy, it is down to lack of funds, yes we have bilford road tip, but without a car or money for petrol i am afraid people can not get to the tip!"

But you have a skip that is placed on the farmers carpark once a month, so theres no excuse is there!!!

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TOWIT26 says...
8:26pm Mon 13 Feb 12

Rainbowdust99....and this gets used, from 7am in the morning, i should know i get woken up with all the bins being dragged back and forth lol .... but it dont seem enough!!! i went the once to put an old set of drawers in there, and it was full, so i ended up going to the tip anyway lol

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Maggie Would says...
10:20pm Mon 13 Feb 12

This can only add to Worcester's reputation as a tourist destination par excellence.

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The Moan says...
11:18pm Mon 13 Feb 12

I think the TOWIT page is great. A lot of my family are from Tolly and I spent a great deal of time there as a kid. Loved the place, didn't care about the reputation or the mess hell we built dens from the broken furniture and thrown out stuff. That's recycling lol. Tolly has something that a lot of newer housing developments don't and that is community. Keep it coming.

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worcswolf says...
12:12am Tue 14 Feb 12

its a shame people let their prejudices influence what is a joke page on facebook. the page is hilarious and i myself coming through the gorse hill academy and brought up on benefits by my single parent mother can laugh especially as most of my family still reside their. i still laugh when i see the people sat on their doorsteps in the summer drinking from cans and smoking. as for the millions spent on the estate i remember a renegeration scheme that made tolladine look like lego city but not much else. the fashe is gone boxs shop and to be honest people all over worcester claim benefits and their are good and bad in all areas. tolladine could do of a revamp but so does ronkswood warndon and dines green.

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lizzyloolah says...
8:59am Tue 14 Feb 12

Remember the red fences with the balls on the posts? Bit daft with all the 'no ball games' signs.

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Vox populi says...
12:57pm Tue 14 Feb 12

The only thing that depresses me about this is that the people who defend their way of life and fly tipping etc seem to be complaining about it. If you complain about it then I am presuming you don't like it? Then next logical step is to do something about it rather than suggest it is fate that put you where you live. This gives you two options:
1.) Stop complaining and get some community spirit together to improve the area, not everything is a hand out, it can be done as a group and look, you have actually created one!
2.) Work yourself out of it. Many famous entrepreneurs grew up in far worse places than the Tolley with far less education, what's your excuse?

I did smile at the being woken up by skip at 7am comment….. Most of those with the "flash lifestyles" you refer to are already halfway to work by then….. :-)

Now set up a proper website for the area, get some community involvement, get some local businesses advertising on it to raise cash and the whole community and yourself might have a lot less to complain about....

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Ex-Worcester boy says...
2:29pm Tue 14 Feb 12

Vox populi you are about to be lectured by the tolly army that they are unable to gain employment and unable to achieve because of someone else's fault, never there's.

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Jabbadad says...
2:39pm Tue 14 Feb 12

With these community Skips, Worcester City councilors had the first scheme stopped, and it was proposed by New Labour councilors that there should be a Kerbside Bulky Items collection scheme across the whole City. It wasn't until the true costs of such a scheme were exposed that they quickly dropped the ideas.
However the Independent councilors kept faith with the Community skips, and eventually they were returned and have proved a huge success.
In the early days and on the day that the skips were in their area, we saw enterprising young lads & girls knocking the Older peoples doors and offering to take their bulky waste items to the skips, for which they were rewarded. So a WIN WIN situation for the Kids, the Older People, and less Three piece Sweets, Beds and Fridges being dumped in the woods. And good for the community.

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lizzyloolah says...
6:26pm Tue 14 Feb 12

I live in Tolly and I work. I work very hard infact. I keep my house and garden clean and I take my rubbish to the tip. If I could afford to live somewhere else I wouldnt. Where else do you get a free bump start on cold mornings when your car battery has all but given up the ghost. :)

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Biggles says...
12:14am Thu 16 Feb 12

Jabbadad wrote:
You really are very sad Biggles. Not all Social Housing is subsidised unless you feel that rents of £90 per week for a 2 bed flat are subsidised plus Rates of almost £25 per week, or over £130 per week for sheltered Housing. And gone are the days of picking the phone up for electrical repairs to be done free. Now there is a call-out charge of £25 plus the tube for a fluorescent tube to be changed for our older most vulnerable people, even when it's a Health & Safety Issue. And there will be maximum rent rises (encouraged by this Tory Government) again in April, which will wipe out any pension increase. And my mum bought her house twice, once by paying rent for over 35 years then having a mortgage and buying it under the Maggie Scheme of right to buy.
Yes I'm sad Jabba
.
I'm sad that it never changes.
.
My wife was born and raised in Tolladine, some of her family still live there.
.
I'm from outside of Worcester, I've never lived on a council estate, and I never want to.
.
Social housing, as I'd imagine you know, was never intended to be homes for life, it was intended to give young couples somewhere to live, so they had time to get onto the property ladder.
.
Just look at the state of the place, some of them have no respect for themselves, let alone other peoples property.
.
And, as has been said, a lot of people in that area don't work, some of them never have, neither have their parents, and neither do their offsprings.
.
So, if everyone is so poor, how come the area is so full of cars ?

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Ex-Worcester boy says...
9:31am Thu 16 Feb 12

Bang on Biggles

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Bribe.A.Burger says...
9:53am Sat 18 Feb 12

TOWIT? Thank heavens it's not.
Other decent, legal lifestyles are also available...

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Jabbadad says...
2:53pm Sat 18 Feb 12

Well Biggles yours and Ex Worcester Boys comments are in keeping. Since all you quote are cliche's and for every description you use to degenerate those who have lived in Council Housing there are thousands who have achieved so much.
In our street a high percentage carried on to better their education, and bought their own homes. In one family of Four children Two Boys and a Girl won scholarships to the Grammar School and the youngest boy won a scholarship to Kings and is now a Professor of Pathology. And that house was our house which as I have previously said (due to my Dad's misbehavior) my Mum was a single mother, and worked hard to buy under the Right to Buy.
My Brother and I worked in our family Butcher's on Council Estates and the customers from the Council Houses were in the main Salt of the Earth.
Yes there were some unsavory ones, but so were there from the surrounding private housing.
My Nan who after being an Army wife during the 14/18 war, an giving birth to Three lad who all achieved in the Army, with Colonel's RSM's etc and she privately rented her house, used to have hundreds of old sayings, one being about housing snobs, who she said had their own houses, Televisions, Fitted Carpets, and Cars, but Had wholes in their underwear. (knickers)

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worcester2012 says...
7:08pm Sun 19 Feb 12

why don't you clean up tolly yourselves? you seem to have enough time to sit on facebook making a site about it and on the facebook page people joke about not having jobs and not bothering to get one and it seems to be that the pictures of rubbish etc are your own back gardens which you cant be bothered to tidy up. i understand that some want to better the area but when the rest are happy to trash it then why waste the time and money like they have done in the past when clearly it makes no difference. i work a full time job and have no help with finance from any source but i still have to pay for my rent and bills which leaves me with very little money and i doubt my place is no bigger, i would love to pay those rates mentioned on a earlier comment! i would very much like to just pick up the phone and pay £25 for repairs on electrics etc rather than the extortionate prices we all have to pay. it just seems that most of you do this s**t on your own doorsteps but you still want everyone else to pay for it and sort out your mess. i feel sorry for the decent people in tolly who deserve to have a better community but unfortunately the majority of you wouldnt let this happen. i was brought up in tolly till i was seven.

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worcester2012 says...
7:14pm Sun 19 Feb 12

ushmush wrote:
I fail to see how fly-tipping and rubbish bags in green recycling bins is the council's fault!

The unemployed within the community should be made to clear up.
i agree with this

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Jabbadad says...
11:26pm Sun 19 Feb 12

worcester 2012, whatever Council tax you are paying over £25 per week says that you are living in a bigger home than me. Since Council Tax is based upon a rating for the size and property Band not where you live. And if you think that £25 plus the cost of the tube is a fair price to change a Light Tube for our older people then you must be darned sight better off than those, I help as a non-paid volunteer.
I do support your demands to keep your own districts clean, since where I was born 70+years ago, we had Housing inspectors whose word seemed to be law.
However nowadays many tenants in Multiple and Sheltered Housing, pay service charges which include site clearance.
So there are good and bad in all areas and societies.

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neighbour25 says...
9:35pm Mon 20 Feb 12

i have lived in Ronkswood, Dinesgreen, tolly, Barbourne and Warndon. I have to say that the best of them was Dinesgreen. However I met some very good friends in tolly and had trusted neighbours who have become lifelong friends also. Although it does have to be said that the majority of the youths in tolladine have no respect for anything other than crime. yes the majority of people do not work and we are now even in to 4 generations of non workers in the same family. it would be nice to see estates become more respectable. And i agree with the comments on clearing it you selves. The council should clamp down hard on those who have a junk yard in their gardens. the government should make them earn their benefits by working for their community. this is not just tolly this is all over the country. assist people but make them stand on their own two feet also.

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