http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skyne ... lace-to-live-45dbed5.html

Apologies to all smoggies but this made me giggle. It's a shame really cause the city centre's not too bad and some of the outlying villages are really nice.

1. Middlesbrough - North East
2. Hull - Humberside
3. Newham - East London
4. Nottingham - East Midlands
5. Merthyr Tydfil - South Wales
6. North East Lincolnshire - Eastern England
7. Islington - North London
8. Blaenau Gwent - South Wales
9. Mansfield - East Midlands
10. Knowsley - Merseyside
11. Blackpool - North West
12. Hackney - East London
13. Stoke-on-Trent - Staffordshire
14. Barking and Dagenham - East London
15. Doncaster - South Yorkshire
16. Cannock Chase - Staffordshire
17. Manchester - North West
18. Haringey - North London
19. Burnley - Lancashire
20. Hartlepool - North East


The best places to live are announced on Wednesday. Wonder what will come top ?

Presumably the top places to live will all be little villages with a population of about 50 (all middle-aged or OAPs) where there's no crime because everyone knows everyone else, there's no drugs because nobody that dodgy ever passes through and there's no lack of services because their local post office/corner shop/pub is all they need and it's open 24/7 even when there's 6 feet of snow blocking all contact with the outside world.

I grew up somewhere like that and absolutely hated it. Thankfully none of the places I've lived made it onto the "worst" list though, although Islington is just a short tube ride away.

I love Manchester, it's awesome.

Quote from Dajmin :

little villages with a population of about 50....
....there's no drugs because nobody that dodgy ever passes through

You'd be surprised.. the village where I grew up loads of people did assorted drugs (I don't count myself as one of these I might add :P ) simply because there was sod-all else to do. Villages are great places to be 8 years old. Not so good to be 15.

So'ton wasn't on the list \o.

FFS why is nottingham 4th, its not even bad >.<

3. Newham - East London
7. Islington - North London
12. Hackney - East London
14. Barking and Dagenham - East London
18. Haringey - North London

Couldnt they have just said london, it would have been so much easier.

But i dont get it, how can these places be worse than living in a sewer. It should be.

1.Sewer
2.Graveyard
3.In a nudist camp on the top of a mountain in winter
4.In jail
5.In a council house (no offense to people who live in council houses, but imo they are kinda shabby)
6.In a box called a caravan.
THEN:
7. Middlesbourgh - North east
8. Hull - Humberside
.... And so on.


Of course, i am joking, because no-one would actually live in the first 5 (maybe 6) places. But they were possibilities that no-one took into account. Silly people.

Quote from Crashgate3 :

.. the village where I grew up loads of people did assorted drugs (I don't count myself as one of these I might add :P ) simply because there was sod-all else to do. Villages are great places to be 8 years old. Not so good to be 15.

I agree 100%. Safe as hell when you're a kid, but boring as hell when you're a teenager.
The village I'm from ended up a bit dodgy as well, but that all seemed to happen when more people moved in. It seemed the more people arrived, the more scummy it got.

Quote from (-Mark-) :

FFS why is nottingham 4th, its not even bad >.<

I dunno. I only ever went to Nottm for shopping trips (when I lived in Derby) and didn't realise it was all that bad. But isn't it now the #1 place in the UK for gun crime? I'm sure I read that somewhere.

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

So'ton wasn't on the list \o.

That's because Soton really isn't that bad. I've lived here for a couple of years, albeit right in the center, and have never had any trouble or fears for my security. Naturally there are bad places, but on general it's pretty good I'd say. Out of interest where in Soton do you live? (If you don't mind me asking).

Polygon. Also lived on the other side of Solent Uni, near Ocean Village. It's not bad, true, but I've had a couple of weirdos throw random abuse and physical threats at me

Ahh yer fair play, it's pretty nice around the polygon though isn't it, I lived on Archers Road last year so was pretty near there, and yer I agree you do get some random stuff, just what you come to expect from a city I suppose

Well, I've lived in two of the top twenty places To be honest, I'm surprised that Stoke-on-Trent is as 'good' as 13th...

S-o-T came first in one of these surveys a while back and I was most amused to see the local councillors quoted in the local rags defending the place. "We produced Robbie Williams and Anthea Turner!". Great.

I vote for Portsmouth!

LOL! Middlesbrough is at the top!

At least we won something!

Middlesbrough is actually nice, unless you go into the rough areas. If you do, its nice. Until you find a knife in your chest.

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

Polygon. Also lived on the other side of Solent Uni, near Ocean Village. It's not bad, true, but I've had a couple of weirdos throw random abuse and physical threats at me

I lived in Calmore till I was 5, and then went back for a few months about 6 years ago, jiving just north of Shirley. Shirley is a bit of a hole.

Quote from NotAnIllusion :

It's not bad, true, but I've had a couple of weirdos throw random abuse and physical threats at me

Just tell them you're from Portsmouth, they usually start running (away).

Everyone makes jokes about Consett (where I live) being a bit of a shit hole... but thinking about it, it's not really. And it's a good night out too, despite all the charvers/chavs! :P

This thread reminds me of a famous kiwi joke.

"Whats the worst geographic feature of Australia.

It's above sea level."

I'm sure the UK has a great collection of s#!tholes, any council estate springs to mind. What would be good to know is what are the great places to live & why. This means that when we Kiwi's & Aussi's come over to take your jobs, women ( or men ) we can also get the inside on areas we havn't overrun yet.

BTW - we antipodians require good broadband, copious alcohol within staggering distance and moderate access to work.

Suggestions please.....

What has everybody got against council estates???
I live on one, there are less than 50 houses in the entire village, of which about 20 are owned by the council/housing association...
My house has just been FULLY modernised to top specifications for insulation, heating, wiring etc....in fact, we are one of only a handful (figuratively speaking) of council owned properties in the country to have geo-thermal heating...VERY 'green' and VERY cheap to run...with the uprated insulation we havent got so much as a carbon toeprint, let alone a carbon footprint!
This 'modernisation' program cost the council £70,000 per house...damn sure I couldnt afford that!
Add to that I have a contract that guarantees my rent will NEVER rise above the rate of inflation..and at the moment I am paying a whole £79 per week for a 3 bedroom semi with a MASSIVE garden in a rural village. I never have to pay for structural repairs, so I only need contents insurance, which saves me money as well.
To get a similar property in this area on the private market would cost me the wrong side of £350K, which I could never hope to be able to pay a mortgage on.
OK, so it will never be 'mine'....so bloody what??!!!

@Bladey, lets be honest, thats not entirely representative of an english council estate. In 1999 i very nearly bought a Maserati Biturbo, (only 7K) but every single insurance company i rang for a quote laughed at me and hung up when i mentioned that i lived in the Byker Wall council estate in Newcastle Upon Tyne

Anyway, the 20 Best Places To Live has just been announced and the winner's are.....:drummer: drum roll

1. Edinburgh
2. Winchester
3. Epsom & Ewell
4. Waverley
5. Mole Valley
6. Surrey Heath
7. South Cambridgeshire
8. Chelmsford
9. Horsham
10. Elmbridge
11. East Dunbartonshire
12. Guildford
13. St. Albans
14. Rushcliffe
15. Bath & North East Somerset
16. Mid Sussex
17. Suffolk Coastal
18. South Northamptonshire
19. Reigate & Banstead
20. Wokingham

I grew up on a council estate in Wakefield. Wasn't so bad, really. My street was mostly kids around my age and pensioners, so quite a neighbourly place really. We used to throw stones at the kids from other streets but maybe that happened outside council estates too, I don't know.

I was never embarrassed about living on a council estate - I was too busy being embarrassed about having holes in my shoes or my dad having not one but two Reliant Supervan IIIs in the drive...

Devon not on the best of list?

Quote from thisnameistaken :

I grew up on a council estate in Wakefield. Wasn't so bad, really. My street was mostly kids around my age and pensioners, so quite a neighbourly place really. We used to throw stones at the kids from other streets but maybe that happened outside council estates too, I don't know.

I was never embarrassed about living on a council estate - I was too busy being embarrassed about having holes in my shoes or my dad having not one but two Reliant Supervan IIIs in the drive...

Could have been worse..He could have had a Skoda!! (or a Wartburg!)
As for holes in your shoes..thats not a problem...I was guaranteed to get holes withn 2 weeks of getting new shoes..used to say that it was for ventilation!

Quote from The General Lee :

Devon not on the best of list?

I'm quite surprised about that too. It's not exactly a rough place.

County I was brought up in is on the list, Good ol' Suffolk.

Edinburgh got #1?
It's a beautiful city, but last I heard it was also the UK's #1 spot for heroin addiction and HIV.

Maybe when you're dossing around out of your face you don't really miss services and stuff

I love the way people are always knocking Liverpool, and scousers.. Well if these stats are true, you have nothing to whine about but the real concern, is why Manchester isn't there... That's the worst place in England, I have ever been to. S H I annnnnd, you can see where this is going.

I'm also confused as to why (bar Edinburgh) there aren't any northern towns in the list of #20 best places to live... Oh wait... I know why, cos all the Government care about is the south side of the UK, cos that's what people visit first, when they get here. WELCOME IMMIGRANTS AND TOURISTS LONDON IZ MASSIV