EXCLUSIVE We live in Britain's WHITEST neighbourhood: Two Sri Lankans are the only ethnic minorities in the area - and here's what they think of it

Daily Mail​

7 hours ago

Brotton in North Yorkshire, a village between pretty Whitby to the south and grittier Middlesbrough northwards, has a unique claim to fame: it contains the area with the 'whitest' population in the UK.
The TS12 postcode that covers much of Brotton records it as the least ethnically mixed in the entire country.
Official data from the last census reveals that, of 1108 people recorded in this area of the North Yorkshire village, all but two identified as White: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British.
And those other two? One was 'White Irish, the other 'White Other'.
But that census was from 2021-2 and when MailOnline visited we found the statistics have since shifted: two Sri Lankan men have since moved to the TS12 area of Brotton with their families.
It seems that recent arrivals, friends Sam Ruthran and Moohanaslan Shambasivan, who now run the village shop and Post Office respectively, have altered Brotton's hitherto unique social make-up.
So what is it like to be 'the only non-white in the village?'
According to Sam and Moohanasian it's actually rather nice - and certainly less life-threatening than they civil war they say forced them to leave their homeland.
The Sri Lankan pair say they were attracted to the former mining village by its relatively rock bottom rents - and both say they received a warm welcome on their arrival from locals.
Sam, 36 who now runs Brotton's Value Grocers, said: 'You do notice that there aren't many people who aren't white here, but that's never been a problem.
'The people here are nice and it's a lovely quiet area.
'There has been the occasional comment which has been unpleasant, but only from a very small minority.'
Explaining why Brotton, he continued: 'We left Sri Lanka as a result of the civil war, it wasn't safe to stay there for my family, and we ended up coming to Britain and going first to Dartford in Kent.
'Then a friend who was in Middlesbrough suggested we come up north and then we saw this shop in Brotton and we're glad we came here.
'Our rent for a three bedroom house in Dartford was £1,200 and here it's £600.'
Sam's pal Moohanaslan, 39, has been in charge of Brotton's Post Office for almost four years and had enjoyed his stay - but says he may not settle permanently as it's too quiet.
He said: 'People have been good to us here and we've never had any trouble, I like it but I think I'd like to go somewhere busier.
'It's a friendly place and we do feel part of the community but I hope at some point to move to a bigger town.'
But he has noticed that Brotton has some social issues, with many out of work and on low incomes.
Moohanaslan continued: 'You can tell when the benefit payments have been made because for two weeks people come in and spend money in the shop, then for the next two weeks it's quiet as they run out of money.'
Despite the conspicuous absence of migrants in the town, there remains an apparently high support for the party most associated with reducing migrant numbers nationally, Reform UK.
Among their Brotton backers is former soldier Dave Loram who even flies the party's logo on a flagpole above his garden, alongside a Union flag and a cross of St George.
'We have to do something about the numbers coming into this country,' said Dave, 77. 'They're taking over.'
The former soldier of the King's Own Royal Border Regiment and ex steelworker used to vote Labour, but they lost him during the Corbyn era.
He said: 'It's Reform and Farage for me now, they're the only ones making any sense. The number of immigrants coming into Britain is ruining the country.
'Look at places like Leeds and Bradford, those places have changed completely and it's reaching a point where there won't be any room for the rest of us.
'I've always voted Labour in the past but I'm like a lot of people in this country, I feel like they just don't represent the working man any more.
'It started under Corbyn and it's carried on under Starmer. They've all said they'll stand up for ordinary British people and they haven't, they've let us all down while they stand by and watch people flood in from across the world.'
When his quarter of Brotton's almost exclusively white status is pointed out to him he concedes that this tide of immigration has left the village largely untouched.
Dave continued: 'Well no, they're not taking over here. It's out of the way and quiet, that's one of the reasons I like it so much.
'You don't see many people from other countries in Brotton - although there are more now than there used to be.
'There's the lad in the shop and the lad in the Post Office. Actually they're both great lads, I've nothing against them at all.'
But if it's not striven by racial divides, this doesn't mean that Brotton is immune to social problems.
Around the corner from that post office is Brotton's most notorious spot, Jackson Street, known with bitter dark humour by some locals as 'Crackson' Street because of the suggestion it is rife with drug useres.
Among those who propound this view is self-employed cleaner Michelle Hazlett, 47.
She struggled to fight back tears as she painted over graffiti that had been recently daubed over the front wall of her home.
'This is just because I wouldn't let a bloke come into my house,' Michelle told MailOnline.
'This place is overrun with crack and people who would nick every bit of stuff you own to buy drugs given half a chance.
'It's not people with different coloured skin you want to worry about, all the crime around here is carried out by white people and it's bloody horrible.'
Pointing at the defaced wall, she went on: 'This is what you get if you stand up to them: 'slag' and 'grass' painted on your wall
'It's just horrible and I wish I could get out.
'But my rent is £390 but that's still expensive to live in a s***hole full of crackheads. You can't have anything decent. I keep my house lovely and until recently I had a nice car but that was stolen and written off.
'I'm at the end of my tether but what can I do? I just try to keep my head down and get on with my life.'
Brotton is just two miles from the attractive North Yorkshire coast, its nearest seaside neighbour the resort of Saltburn-by-the-Sea with its pier and tourism.
It is historic enough to have been listed in the Doomsday Book and its most famous son, early 20th century sculptor Charles Sykes, designed the famous Spirit of Ecstasy mascot used on Rolls Royce cars.
But the village - which has a population of just over 5,000, around a fifth of whom are covered by that TS12 postcode - was grew during the 19th century thanks to its ironstone mining industry and has struggled since its collapse.
And it has been blighted by some antisocial behaviour lately. Just last month police evicted the occupants of one TS12 house and boarded it after repeated complaints from long-suffering neighbours.
One relieved neighbour said: 'It was just a hub for crime and the people in there were causing chaos.
'They spent their days shoplifting and their nights on the drugs they bought by selling the stuff they nicked.
'It was a relief when the council and the police closed it down. I'd rather see the place boarded up than occupied by addicts, the village had been ruined by drugs.'
Mother-of-six Sharon Booker, 58, has moved away from her native Brotton three times, but always finds herself returning home again.
She said: 'It's a friendly place, the sort of village where you can rely on your neighbour to look out for you and where you actually can leave your door open and know your home will be safe.
'The downfall is that there isn't very much for the kids to do, it's quite isolated and that might be why there aren't more people here from other cultures.
'I think people here are quite accepting of others but there are always exceptions.
'My daughter is mixed race and she had trouble at school when a boy made racist remarks.
'I have taught her to stand up for herself and she did but it was still a shocking thing to hear in this day and age, you wonder where a young kid would come across ideas like that.
'He ended up being expelled.
'For the most part that kind of attitude is rare here, we look out for each other and we're a welcoming community.'
Brotton falls in the Redcar and Cleveland district, an area which has traditionally formed part of North Yorkshire and has always had a largely white population.
In 2021, 97.7% of people in the district identified their ethnic group as 'white,' compared with 98.5% in 2011. Only 0.9% identified their ethnic group within the 'mixed or multiple' category, compared with 0.6% the previous decade.
The percentage of people who identified their ethnic group within the 'Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh' category increased from 0.6% in 2011 to 0.8% in 2021.
The population of Brotton, in its remote location, has remained largely unchanged since the discovery of Ironstone in the Cleveland Hills.
Its largest pit, Lumpsey Mine, was established in the 1880s but closed down in 1954. It was considered a valuable enough asset to have an artillery post to defend it from zeppelin attack during the First World War.
The area has fallen into decline and unemployment remains high, with four in 10 children in the Redcar and Cleveland district living in poverty.
While crime and poverty are still a preoccupation, Brotton's lack of diversity doesn't trouble the locals.
'It's not something I ever think about,' said Lauren Pearce, 30. 'I've lived here all my life and I have five kids at decent schools.
'We don't really stop to think about where people come from as long as everyone gets along and is happy here. It's a quiet part of a quiet village and I'm happy with that, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.'