Did anyone watch.......

Vonny · Post by **Vonny** » Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:53 pm

Best And Worst Places To Live In Uk 2006?

Horsham came 2nd and Hertford area 7th in the best places to live! They even showed a clip outside Hertford East

Here's the final line up:-

Top 10 Best Places ( link with video footage - http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/bes ... /best.html )

10 West Dorset
The picturesque rural and coastal district.

9 Eastleigh
Ugly, but with great employment prospects.

8 Epsom and Ewell
Was last year's number one, but isn't cheap.

7 East Hertfordshire
A country-town feel close to London.

6 Orkney
Escape the rat race in the rugged far north.

5 South Cambridgeshire
Fast growing country villages.

4 Harrogate
Elegant living in the centre of the UK.

3 Tunbridge Wells
Its residents clearly aren't disgusted any more.

2 Horsham
Close to both the south coast and London.

1 Winchester
A perfect blend of heritage and vibrant modern living.

Top 10 Worst: (link with video footage - http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/bes ... worst.html )

10 Manchester
Lots of investment but still not a nice place to live.

9 Blaenau Gwent
Unemployment is rife since the steelworks closed.

8 Strabane
The troubles still go on, but things are improving.

7 Nottingham
Crime is down but it's still burglary capital of Britain.

6 Middlesbrough
The city's dilapidated old housing lies empty.

5 Islington
Super rich lies next to super poor.

4 Newham
New hope has come in the form of the Olympics.

3 Merthyr Tydfil
Slowly improving since the steel industry died.

2 Tower Hamlets
The second most deprived borough in the UK.

1 Hackney
High crime, bad education - our worst place to live.

Great Plum · Post by **Great Plum** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 10:34 am

Well Horsham is a nice place to live but I can see why it wouldn't suit everyone!

cj · Post by cj » Fri Oct 27, 2006 11:00 am

Very disappointed that Glorious Devon did not make it to the top 10 best, but relieved it wasn't in the 10 worst!

DavebytheSea · Post by **DavebytheSea** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 11:52 am

Fortunately we keep Flushing secret. As for the rest of Cornwall, we suffer from low wages and exploitation by Westminster and the South-east.

Great Plum · Post by **Great Plum** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:47 pm

And all the houses are owned by people from London...

Deb GP · Post by **Deb GP** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 12:57 pm

Hmm. I'm from Horsham. Hubby is from Tunbridge Wells. I would never, ever, ever live in either. House prices are over inflated and they're sooooo "provincial". I went to the TW post Remembrance Sunday Parade drinks in the TW Town Hall with the Mayor et al last year (Hubby's TA Unit were on parade) My goodness it was a hellish blend of small town/tory-boy/chelsea tractor/old-boys/ keep out the immigrants/keep up with the Joneses attitudes. I felt myself uttering "How nice" through gritted teeth on several ocassions in an stunted effort not to scream at them to get a life and see what's really happening in the world.

Jude · Post by **Jude** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 3:24 pm

Living in GLoucestershire I apparently don't know about cities (according to Leeds!) but apart from having to pay loads extra taxes to pay for the Royals to have our police protecting them, I think it is a wonderful place to live. However, I suspect like every "shire" county etc there are both good and bad places to live - and again it all depends on what you can afford, and what you want. Personally I think top 10 leagues of places, schools, Universities etc are all a load of rubbish. If you are interested in a school or Uni - you go and look around it - from that you decided if it is for you or not! No single person can state categorically that a is the best and Z is the worst. it all depends on the person who is looking.

and no I didn't see it and I am glad I didn't! I visited the Dome for the simple reason that I belive that unless you have EXPERIENCED it personally you cannot make a valid comment on it. I now expect tons of hate mail - but ho hum! My Verdict? It was a total waste of money, the day out cost us Â£200, train fare, entrance and food, half the exhibits were not working, my son had his mobile stolen, and I was so glad to get out of the morass of humanity I can't express it!

Hendrik · Post by **Hendrik** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 4:08 pm

Deb GP wrote:Hmm. I'm from Horsham. Hubby is from Tunbridge Wells. I would never, ever, ever live in either. House prices are over inflated and they're sooooo "provincial". I went to the TW post Remembrance Sunday Parade drinks in the TW Town Hall with the Mayor et al last year (Hubby's TA Unit were on parade) My goodness it was a hellish blend of small town/tory-boy/chelsea tractor/old-boys/ keep out the immigrants/keep up with the Joneses attitudes. I felt myself uttering "How nice" through gritted teeth on several ocassions in an stunted effort not to scream at them to get a life and see what's really happening in the world.

agreed, though i ain't keen on sussex/surrey anyway, let alone the abhorrent views of the inhabitants...

it's expensive, not spectacularly pretty, full of chavs and white-van-men, soulless, up it's own ars*, incredibley monocultural, dire public transport, crap drivers, Francis Maude; i could go on forever.

well, that's certainly what i found horsham to be like at least.

forum members not included obviously.

Jeeves · Post by **Jeeves** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 5:06 pm

At last, a sensible topic.

Interesting program, although I do not agree with Horsham reaching the top 10 (and at such a ridiculously high position). Note how they only filmed the Causeway! No offence to those who live in Horsham as parts of it are quite pleasant. The Horsham that I know is certainly not somewhere that I'd like to live. They failed to mention the high chav population, the lack of decent shops (especially music shops) and the fact that Horsham is too close to Crawley! I personally believe that the presenters have invested in or have something to do with the development of Horsham and want to increase the average house price so that they can profit. I rate Horsham as "Number 2", but in a different way. Not only that they seemed to talk about local schools being an important factor on homebuying for parents - well they didn't mention C.H. did they?

Richard Ruck · Post by **Richard Ruck** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 5:13 pm

I think the programme was a bit misleading about Horsham - lots of pretty images of the Causeway, some old buildings etc.

There ARE plenty of Chavs and an absurd amount of white vans, but on the whole it's decent enough.

As for 'abhorrent' views, well there are about 130,000 people living in Horsham District - we're not all 'hang 'em and flog 'em, no bl*ody foreigners in MY town' sorts, you know!

And just for the record, I didn't vote for Francis Maude.

Vonny · Post by **Vonny** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 5:16 pm

Jeeves wrote:Interesting program, although I do not agree with Horsham reaching the top 10 (and at such a ridiculously high position).

Must admit I was quite surprised it being No2.

Was equally surprised at Winchester. Don't get me wrong, I love the town, cathedral, park etc (we used to live close by) but the traffic is awful. Much like any other town these days I guess but just made me laugh the way they showed the "tranquil" aspects!

The West Dorset one was mis leading as well, focusing on Poundbury - Charlies village come town come whatever. Dorchester is a small market (county) town and does have nice areas BUT I wouldn't want to live in Poundbury

There's always stories in the local paper about teenage crime etc. The "real" town is NOT big enough to support Poundbury shop wise. Even the Tesco "superstore" isn't that super. In fact it's the second smallest Tesco superstore I've seen.

Whoops - I seem to have gone on a bit!

By the way - I've lived in 3 of the "top" places and lived within a few miles of another 2

Richard Ruck · Post by **Richard Ruck** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 5:16 pm

Jeeves wrote:At last, a sensible topic.

I personally believe that the presenters have invested in or have something to do with the development of Horsham and want to increase the average house price so that they can profit.

They probably had a bung from our beloved council - wouldn't surprise me.......

Ruthie-Baby(old a/c) · Fri Oct 27, 2006 6:08 pm

hmm, as thinking of moving to one of the top ten places, am not amsued. do not want housing costs to go up

Hannoir · Post by **Hannoir** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 6:12 pm

I can't think of anything worse than living in Horsham. It doesnt seem to have any character and seems to be very provincial, conservative etc. Expensive too.

Mrs C. · Post by **Mrs C.** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 6:39 pm

As usual with this type of thing, its simply a case of twisting the facts to suit your own purpose!
I didn`t see the programme, but.......
Who was surveyed to find the data needed? OAPs? Teenagers? Middle-aged Conservatives?
Was it , for example, based on estate agents views? The number of people wanting to buy in an area doesn`t necessarily mean it`s the best place to live!

As we all require different things to make a place desirable, what suits one won`t suit another - so basically a load of c**p!!

I certainly wouldn`t want to, and couldn`t afford to, live in Winchester. My in-laws have lived there for years so I know the place reasonably well, and I wouldn`t want to live in Horsham if I had free choice.