The struggle of one UK city in the new times

Chatham, United Kingdom-The calm voice of Vince Maple belies his annoyance from the quiet corner of a library nestled in the heart of the country of Charles Dickens.

Late, he says, for his birthplace in southeast England, just 50 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of the capital, London, it has been the worst of times.

Perched by the Medway River, Chatham was once the famous author's stomping ground and, for centuries, the....