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My Meadows - Shaminder
My dad owns the shop, and I run it along with my brothers.
It is a good shop and we have been here for 1 year and 3 months. But we don’t live in the Meadows.
When we first started here, people were a bit funny with us, but we expected that as the previous owner had been here for 17 years. He had a really good reputation with a lot of the people around here.
It was difficult to begin with, but now I think we’ve proved ourselves, and some people come back to us saying our food quality is a lot better than other chippies.
We did experience a bit of racism when we first got here, with people saying "Oh god they’re everywhere" but that was it and it was probably from about two customers, who still buy their chips here now.
There is definitely a close-knit community here; everyone knows everything. The best thing about being here is that I have made some really good friends.
When we first arrived they advised me to keep myself to myself, but I didn’t take their advice. I did mess up because I have made a lot of friends with people and talk to them, sometimes your personal life goes out on the precinct and people gossip about you.
I love the fact that it’s multicultural here; everybody accepts each other. It’s a good place.
I don’t think it’s as bad as people make it out to be at all. But you do need to be strong to be around here.
After 8 o’clock at night you don’t see any old people, they are scared to come out of their houses. It’s like a curfew. We are the last shop open on the Precinct and it’s like a ghost town.
People don’t come out simply because they are scared. It’s not as bad as it’s made out to be, we leave here late at night and nothing’s ever happened to us.
We could do with something to make people feel safer, they put in CCTV everywhere, but there’s not one camera on the Precinct, where I think it is needed the most.
This Meadows and St Anne’s thing is old news now. It has got a bad reputation but it’s like anywhere else really.
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