Residents agree that Swindon is a “fantastic” place to live after a respected study ranked it above London and Oxford.
The study by PwC, the world’s second-largest professional service provider, ranked towns and cities according to how well they met residents’ well-being priorities.
Swindon ranked fourth in Britain, performing well in terms of jobs income, health, transport, environment, safety, and – perhaps surprisingly – high street and shops.
Adver readers largely agreed with the findings, despite recognising some of the town’s shortfallings.
Graham Philpot said: “Swindon is in fact a great place to live. Sure the town centre’s a dump but there’s a whole lot more to Swindon than derelict shops, run-down pubs & bizarre water features.
He praised Swindon’s “unmatched connectivity” to “picturesque villages, major cities & airports”.
The town’s “suburban areas are outstanding and parklands plentiful” making it “a fantastic place to raise a family”. Graham would “never swap back” to Cirencester.
Tis JP agreed: “Swindon does have a lot of positives. It's quite strategically placed with other major towns and cities, both beaches on the south coast and Cotswolds.”
“The town itself has all the shops/stores/merchants you typically need with decent schools and crime is relatively low. In addition there are lots of green areas and parks to enjoy.”
Swindon came behind Plymouth, Bristol and Southampton but above London and Oxford.
Wright Shell saw why: “I've lived in London and Oxford and I think it's better than both.” And so did Kimberley Polden: “Ain’t the best but deffo better then Oxford and London.”
David Henderson reasoned: “It's not got the history of Oxford or the size of London or Bristol but for a town of sub 200k population its not bad.”
However, everyone agreed that although there is much to praise, the town centre “needs to be sorted”, as Becky Poole said.
Although ranking above average in terms of high street and shops, the score was still negative, but just not as low as the other places in Britain.
New businesses was the lowest ranking, being the only measure to come out below average.
The study pointed to an “increasing imbalance” between neighbourhoods fuelled by disparities in access to quality education and housing in some areas of the country.
Tom Ayerst, PwC’s south west market senior partner, placed the south west’s overall good performance down “some of the UK’s safest and healthiest cities, with good availability of skills and robust transport infrastructure”.
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