Seriously, the council in charge of sunderland needs shot. They're absolutely hopeless and have been for generations, but people keep voting them in and doing fuck all about it.
Shitty bargain shops, fast food/takeaways everywhere, awful bars/nightclubs and you simply can't miss a Greggs as there's about 1500 in the city center. I had to live in Sunderland for studies on/off for a few years and it's such a depressing town (and I've lived in Middlesbrough for a year).
It's seriously about 30 years behind the times, but everyone here knows this of course.