"Shortlisted" - UK's most depressing town, 2024

[whole diary]

[Thatcham Crossing]

Pleased to see Dover on this list - because it should be. And, yes, I have lived there.

More surprised that Bracknell isn't! And, yes, I've lived there aswell!

[REVUpminster]

Paignton and Torquay on the list. Paignton lost 5000 jobs overnight in 2008 and only now is money being spent in the way of numerous grants.

This is reflected in Torbay population between the census of 2001 and 2011 when it stayed the same. Property prices collapsed in the 2008 financial melt down; and whereas London property began to recover in about 3 years Torbay remained stagnant for 10 years until 2018 before going up. Despite this Torquay has some housing on a par with Sandbanks and Salcombe.

The population has grown between 2011 and 2021 brough about by hundreds if not thousands of new houses, but the jobs are in Exeter. Good for the railways.

[bobm]

Somewhat late to the party is the Swindon Advertiser in an article which concentrates on Melksham but conveniently overlooks Swindon....

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/24046764.melksham-nominated-worst-places-live-uk/

A councillor has hit back at a scathing review that landed a “depressing” Wiltshire town on the list of worst places in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

Melksham has found itself, alongside Trowbridge, on town review site ILiveHere.com’s 2024 list of 153 nominees for the “most depressing” place to live in the UK.

The town was nominated after a searing review by a resident labelled it a “boring, decaying, grimy and downright depressing hovel.”

They added: “Melksham is sadly another example of how decades of decline and social issues have transformed many Wiltshire towns into rundown relics of a bygone era.

“The town has never been the nicest place to live, but the past decade has seen a steady decline in appearance, with the town centre resembling a dying mess of salons, barbers, kebab shops, antique dealers, and the obligatory pound shops.

“Do not visit this place at all, there is nothing of the slightest interest here.”

[grahame]

Somewhat late to the party is the Swindon Advertiser in an article which concentrates on Melksham but conveniently overlooks Swindon....

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/24046764.melksham-nominated-worst-places-live-uk/

“Do not visit this place at all, there is nothing of the slightest interest here.”

Views differ ... but  there is plenty more we can do (as there is in most towns).

[stuving]

There is something a bit odd about that list in the OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter, or Off Peak, depending on context) - it is shorter than the 153 quoted in the article.
Aberdeen and Accrington are missing from the start, and Winchester, Wokingham, Wrexham, and Yeovil from the end. Note that this list is a shortlist for for a vote for rankings, and I think names can still be added to it which would increase that number.

There was another of these nomination-based lists in December, the Happy at Home Index from Rightmove. This is ranked, unlike the other one. It still has its oddities: the page has no national list, and the selector map includes Norhern Ireland but its link does not work. That is presumably why, having merged the regional lists into one, it has 17 ranks missing!

Given the subjectivity and personal bias in the whole process you'd expect several towns to be in both lists. Oddly, or perhaps suspiciously, the coincidences I can find are the first and last four names with national ranks for "happiest":
Aberdeen      121
Winchester      2
Wokingham      4
Wrexham        77
Yeovil           188

If course it's not surprising that what some of us find makes us happy, others find a "Bland, Boring, Soul destroying mediocrity with a gaping cultural void". And vice versa.