Great Western Coffee Shop

2017, Britain's best rural places to live in 2017 have been revealed in the latest annual quality of life survey.

http://www.rsnonline.org.uk/community/revealed-best-rural-places-to-live-in-2017

Is there a "best 'best place to live survey' survey"? Because there are just loads of the things out there.

You can pick one according to whether its result suit you - like this one by Rightmove last year:


Full list:

Place	Region	Average asking price
Isle of Skye	Scotland	£230952
Woolacombe	South West	£346396
Callington	South West	£235860
St Ives	South West	£366628
Keswick	North West	£319628
Pembroke	Wales	£169969
Padstow	South West	£421290
Salcombe	South West	£635083
Ambleside	North West	£431669
Newquay	South West	£246976

.. which does at least have local relevance.

I get the others but Callington? Seriously?

I'm a little surprised that the only area of Somerset that features in the top 50 is Sedgemoor. That contains Bridgwater (aka Bilgewater, aka Somerset's Beirut) for heaven's sake. And Burnham-on-Sea, a 'seaside' town where Bridgwater rejects end up. After they've been rejected by Highbridge. The best things to come out of Sedgemoor? The M5 and the A38.

Yes, there are some nice villages in Sedgemoor, but the other districts of Somerset are far more agreeable. If I was to rank the five districts; Mendip, Sedgemoor, South Somerset, Taunton Deane, West Somerset, then Sedgemoor would be resolutely last.

Sedgemoor Motorway services are pretty good to be fair, maybe that swung it?  :D

May be so - drink and food is important. According to http://www.whatmortgage.co.uk/news/best-rural-areas-live-uk/

The set of criteria and their weighting is so subjective that this exercise is pretty meaningless.

Some might consider fewer pubs for example as an asset rather than a fault. Also in many rural areas pubs have drifted more towards being restaurants, and even then they can struggle to be viable against being sold off as housing in more affluent areas.

Is this the list where estate agents bid to make their patch top?  ;)

Have they improved in recent years? They were absolutely disgusting when I was commuting up and down the M5, so now I avoid!

To the original post, there seems to be multiple surveys. Falmouth and Bristol have both come top of best place to live surveys in the last month. It all comes down to what you want.
If you want to be robbed and your car nicked, Bridgwater would be a good choice.

For months now there has been a sign on the M5 between Jncs 21 and 20 warning of no fuel at Sedgemoor Services.  As I passed it yesterday I did wonder if the sign had been forgotten or that in fact there had been no fuel deliveries since before Christmas. Since I have paid off my mortgage, I have no intention of taking out another one to buy fuel at motorway service station prices.  To allude to another thread about expensive fares:  Who buys fuel on the motorway? (Whoops! - could cause massive deviation from thread title so apologies).

Brent Knoll looks lovely in the sun - that's one asset for Sedgemoor.

It does look nice in the sun. Not sure how much of an asset for Sedgemoor it is though. Because if you go to the top,  your view is of Bridgwater, Burnham and Highbridge.

There is a Saisnburys immediately off the roundabout at J25, typically 15p a litre cheaper than Taunton Deane services!

The same goes for J12 Theale/Reading of the M4.