Latest news with #WhichMagazine
The Sun
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
We live in UK's ‘worst' seaside town – tourists say it's rundown and crime is a problem but here's why locals love it
BILLY BUTLIN'S Bognor Regis holiday camp will celebrate a milestone birthday tomorrow. But 65 years after the famous Redcoats first welcomed families to the resort on July 2, 1960, the once thriving seaside town has been branded the WORST in Britain. 10 10 In a damning survey by consumer magazine Which?, it scored a measly 36 per cent approval rate. This compares with 84 per cent for Bamburgh, Northumberland, which topped the poll Bognor, which hosted King George V in 1929 as he recovered from lung surgery, was slammed as dirty and rundown. Maybe the King would have agreed, having famously said 'bugger Bognor' when asked to bestow the suffix 'Regis' on the town. The West Sussex town's beach rating came in at just two stars out of five, while the seafront, food and drink offerings, tourist attractions, scenery, shopping, parking, peace and quiet and value for money received one star each. Considering Princess Diana used to spend her family holidays in an estate nearby, it is a devastating fall from grace for the town. But when we visited on a sweltering Sunday, many furious locals and visitors hit back at the Bognor bashing. There were hordes of sun seekers flocking to the shingle beach and feasting on fish and chips as they made the most of one of the hottest days of the year so far. Bikini-wearing Olivia Martin, a 27-year-old accountant from Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, was sunbathing with her pals. 'Bad jokes' She told us: 'I'm really surprised by that report, there are definitely far worse beach resorts around. 'It's peaceful here and I haven't seen any street drinkers or homeless people like you do further down the coast in Brighton and Worthing. I tried the new Gladiators event at Butlin's with some of the TV stars… and my kids were obsessed 'It's the first time I've been to Bognor but I'll definitely be back.' Local paddleboarder Malcolm Nisse, 57, grew up in Bognor and was quick to defend his hometown. He said: 'The problem is this town has been the butt of bad jokes for years. 'Like any seaside town it has seen better days. Yes, it is worn in places but there are lots of lovely houses and it's a great place to raise a family. 'People are quick to complain but other places are far more rundown and don't get the bad press we get.' Yet while there were plenty of families having good old-fashioned fun in the sun, immigration, crime and the 'Benidorm boom' — cheap package holidays to sunny Spanish hotspots — have hit the town hard. And the decades of decline are clear to see. A swathe of former bed and breakfasts along the promenade have been converted into a grim patchwork of crumbling HMOs, halfway houses and temporary accommodation. The high street has certainly seen better days. A glance around reveals boarded-up shopfronts, peeling paintwork and a host of vape stores, cash converters and bookies. And the ornate Victorian pier has fallen into disrepair. Like many such coastal towns around the country, Nigel Farage's Reform Party has capitalised by winning council seats. In April, Reform 's Giuliano Leo Pinnelli secured a seat on the town council after a by-election. 'Like all seaside towns, it's been chronically neglected,' explained Gary Markwell, Reform group leader for West Sussex County Council and one of its four Reform UK members. 'There are frustrations at the lack of vision. The beach is beautiful but just one street back it's all rubble and boarded-up shopfronts. 'Along with a rise in immigration, largely from eastern Europe, there has been an increase in shoplifting, fighting and anti-social behaviour. 'There was even a drug -related fatal stabbing on the beach a few months ago, and a teenager caught with a machete. 'People around here perceive the police as too soft. They don't turn up or don't do anything. 'People are fed up of seeing someone getting a custodial sentence for posting on Facebook or tweeting while knife crime is ignored.' The beachfront Waverley pub was doing a brisk trade at the weekend, with live music and every table taken for lunch. But landlord Rob Chamberlain agreed that the number of former offenders and immigrants being housed in Bognor is testing the town to breaking point. There are frustrations at the lack of vision. The beach is beautiful but just one street back it's all rubble and boarded-up shopfronts Reform's Giuliano Leo Pinnelli He told us: 'There's been a problem with illegal immigration which has changed the culture of the town. Many don't learn the language or get involved, which makes some people hostile. 'It's become a dumping ground for people with drug and alcohol problems.' And Tracey Alderton, a resident for 26 years, is concerned about smashed shop windows and rough sleepers. Asked if she lived in Bognor, Tracey sighed, 'unfortunately'. The 63-year-old, who owns a business with her husband, said: 'We've had so much crime. The police do absolutely nothing. I have not got anything good to say. 'They are trying to improve it but I don't think the plants are good, they look like weeds. 10 'They need to start with the crime problem. Until they address these problems it's not going to improve. 'We've still got somebody sleeping in the doorways. At one point we had loads of them. We were frightened to walk down here. The major thing is the crime.' The town ranks in the top five most dangerous towns in West Sussex, with 138 crimes per 1,000 people in 2023. Immigration is a political hot potato here, but Reform councillor Trevor Bence insists the issue is not confined to Bognor. 'I'm sick to the back teeth of people knocking Bognor,' he said. 'It's no different to every other coastal resort in the entire country. This report is totally unfair.' Either way, huge investment is already on the horizon. 'Lots of drunks' Work has started on an £8million regeneration of The Arcade shopping centre, £15million is being spent on renovating the Alexandra Theatre and there are plans for a new secondary school. Building work on a £13million, 150-room Premier Inn is under way and the town's last remaining nightclub is reopening. Deputy Mayor Paul Wells said: 'Cheap package holidays and a lack of investment came at the same time, creating a perfect storm for Bognor, but now investment is starting to trickle through.' Every year, more than 100,000 visitors visit Bognor over the summer months, swamping the population of 64,000. Among them last weekend was heath worker Gemma Nolan, 37, from Coulsdon, South London, who was staying in a caravan park with her partner Aaron, her sisters and their children. They prefer Bognor's traditional bucket-and-spade charm to better known destinations such as Brighton or Blackpool. They need to start with the crime problem. Until they address these problems it's not going to improve Local resident Tracey Alderton 'My mum used to come here,' she told us. 'I can see why people complain about the lack of facilities compared to bigger towns but that means it's always quieter here, and better value for money, and we like that. Bognor definitely needs modernising but that suits us because we're old school.' 10 While holidaymakers are happy, many locals maintain that their hometown has been overlooked for public funding in the past and that it has been left behind by Arun District Council in favour of neighbouring Littlehampton. Cleaner Lesley Barnes, 70, criticised the length of time the £1.39million regeneration of the seafront to widen pavements and replace parking spaces with flowerbeds had taken. 'It's been months,' she said. 'We don't go down to the seafront. When you live here it is not something you do.' Her friend, retired traffic warden Mary Clark, 70, agreed the town has gone downhill in the 29 years she has lived there. She said: 'I just think the town is filthy. It could definitely do with a clean-up all around the railway station. There's lots of drunks outside everywhere. 'There are a lot of empty shops. There's a lot of shoplifting. You don't see a lot of police any more, you don't see anybody around. 'All the money just goes to Littlehampton. 'All these vape shops . . . it has gone downhill a lot.' The residents may not be happy, but Met Office records show that Bognor averages around 1,900 hours of sunshine a year, making it right up there as one of the sunniest spots in the country. Bognor is also home to a new Amazon distribution centre, which has boosted job opportunities, as well as the University of Chich-ester's engineering campus. And then, of course, there is still Butlin's, which provides a huge boost to the local economy all year round. Its Big Weekender events frequently draw 5,000 people to the town to see headline acts such as Stephen Mulhern, Peter Andre, Wet Wet Wet, Tony Hadley, Blue, Five and DJ Spoony. Friends Holly Carter, Lewis Harvey and Kieran Webb, all 29, were enjoying a relaxing break at Butlin's for the first time on the weekend. And though they found the pier 'sad', Holly, a psychologist, had a simple suggestion . . . 'Everything just needs a new coat of paint and then it would look a million times better.' 10 GIVE TOWN A CHANCE By Lisa Minot, Head of Travel BASHING Bognor smacks of pure laziness to me. Like many other traditional seaside towns, the rise of cheap package holidays abroad and lack of investment have definitely taken their toll on what was once the jewel of the South Coast. Yes, it's a long way from its glory days, but with the thriving Butlin's providing employment for many locals and a multi-million-pound regeneration of the seafront, it would be foolish to write it off just yet. Public and private investment is a must and, with the likes of Margate and Folkestone in nearby Kent, we have seen just how rundown seaside towns can turn their fortunes around if this happens. Bognor Regis still has a vital role to play in allowing families on lower incomes a safe, sunny and good-value break. We should be applauding its efforts to invest and improve – and not merely focus on the negatives.
Daily Mail
22-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Inside the anti-depressant capital of Britain: The miserable northern suburb where one in three people beg their doctor for medication
Beneath a green canopy of trees and a carpet of well-kept lawns, the small town of Brinnington hides its dark secret. The leafy main road, two churches, a post office and an array of shops could at first sight pass for another well-heeled suburb of Stockport, Greater Manchester. But scratch the surface and it becomes easier to understand why this is the depression capital of the country with nearly one in three people (31.7 per cent) begging their doctor for help with the mental health condition in one particular enclave. Other statistics in Brinnington from the 2021 Census weave their own depressing story. The unemployment rate here is 5 per cent, vs 2.9 per cent for England as a whole. And the proportion of long-term sick or disabled people is an astonishing 11.7 per cent - nearly three times the national average of 4.1 per cent. The area's economic woes and the fact that many seemed resigned to their fate - up to 40 per cent of people in Brinnington admit to smoking compared to 4 per cent in more affluent local areas - has led to the most troubling statistic of all. People here will die on average 10 years sooner than those just five miles away in better-off Bramhall. Perhaps surprisingly, in 2023, Which? Magazine named Stockport in the dozen best place to retire in Britain and last year the Sunday Times rated it the best place to live in the North West, following a £1bn town centre regeneration programme. But the town centre is a good 40-minute walk away from Brinnington, or a 10-minute bus journey, for those who can make it. And despite the acres of green space nearby, including the nearby Reddish Vale country park, Brinnington, tucked into a bend of the M60 motorway, seems trapped in a spiral of discontent. One woman told us: 'They are forever moving people here, the homeless, refugees, the unemployed all get dumped here and the rest of us just have to carry on. 'Despite what it looks like, this is still a very working class area and most of the housing used to be council houses. 'The problem is the jobs have gone and there are a lot of people here who no longer know what to do with themselves. We can't seem to move on.' Statistics in Brinnington from the 2021 Census weave a depressing story: the unemployment rate here is 5 per cent, vs 2.9 per cent for England as a whole Phyllis Williamson, 67, who has lived in Brinnington for over 40 years, admits to being surprised at the depression statistics. 'The town looks affluent from the top road but there is a lot of poverty once you start looking around.' she says. 'The council tries to keep the place nice but there are a lot of people with problems in the the town houses and some of the tower blocks we have here. 'You can see it on people's faces. The community spirit is still here but it is not like it was forty years ago when you could knock on anyone's door. 'Now you would have to walk a long way before you would find a door you would be comfortable knocking on.' The 11-storey tower blocks - there are seven barely seen from the main road but which dominate the landscape further back into town - are home to an array of people including those with disabilities. One of the blocks, Conway Towers, is home to a lot of young families, some of whom are struggling to get by. One woman who came outside, pushing her pram to the local shops, told us: 'I have got four kids and a partner who has mental health problems but we are stuck in this high rise. 'I have been here eight years and it seems as if I will be here forever. It looks like there is nowhere else to go.' She was heading for the 1960s-style shop precinct just off the main Brinnington Road, where stands the local library, some council offices, a small supermarket and a chemists. Behind them there is a barbers, a bookies and a booze shop while up the road stands a B&M store and a post office opposite next to the bus stop. Yards away, outside St Luke Church, three middle-aged women stand talking while smoking a joint, leaving the pungent smell of weed hanging in the air. Six years ago, when Brinnington first began to appear near the top of the 'depression stats', a local GP, Dr James Higgins, now Primary Care Network clinical director for the area, examined his caseload for The Guardian. He looked back on every consultation in the previous six weeks. Of the 123 adult patients he saw, 24 per cent were actively asking for help with depression, a further 28 per cent were already being treated for the condition and 16 per cent had previously had it. 'Only 31 per cent had never been depressed,' he said, admitting slight surprise at his own findings -- and that was before the pandemic hit. Nearly half of all homes in Brinnington are social housing, with 68 per cent of people paying rent to either a private or public landlord. A total of 45 per cent of people live alone, compared with 30 per cent nationally. Dr Dalia Tsimpida, lecturer in gerontology at the University of Southampton, has investigated what makes some neighbourhoods mental health hotspots. She said: 'Deprivation is a key driver, accounting for up to 39 per cent of recorded depression levels across England, although this varies dramatically by location.' Her research has identified a previously overlooked factor: noise pollution, which will certainly be a factor for some in Drinnington with the non-stop din from the M60 barely a stone's throw from many homes. More noise pollution comes from rowdy teenagers screeching around on motorbikes, as well as the cars, buses, lorries and trains that fill the environment with a cacophony of sounds. But worst of all, by far, are the planes that pass overhead every minute, landing and taking off from nearby Manchester Airport. Locals, however, say they don't take it seriously. Several told us: 'You get used to it. It's just white noise.' But areas with transportation noise exceeding 55 decibels on average in a 24-hour period show much stronger links between health deprivation, disability, and depression. 'Environmental stressors play a crucial but underappreciated role,' said Dr Tsimpida. 'While transportation noise doesn't directly cause depression, it significantly amplifies the impact of other risk factors.' She added: 'Living in a depression hotspot exposes people to what may be "contagion effects" - both social and environmental. 'We observed that mental health challenges may spread through communities through mechanisms like social isolation, reduced community resources, environmental degradation, and normalised hopelessness.' Recently, Stockport Council has trialled a new approach to help those residents 'feeling low, lonely, or in need of a lifestyle change.' The non-medical 'Wellbeing Prescription' relies on exercise and activity instead of drugs and has been run in partnership with Life Leisure, Age UK Stockport, Viaduct Care CIC, and local GP surgeries in Brinnington and Bramhall. But locals complain that the problem is that some people do not look after the town. One woman said: 'We have a street cleaner who comes here three times a week and takes between 30-50 bags of rubbish off the streets on every visit. 'He has told me his bags are full of things like hypodermic needles, dog dirt, babies' nappies and lots of stuff people should be disposing of themselves. 'They just walk out of the door and throw stuff on the ground and leave it to the street then, as soon as he is gone, they will throw out some more.' Among the haul that could be seen last week was a Morrisons supermarket trolley amid a pile of filled rubbish bags. Another man. who asked not to be named said local contractors had learnt to be cautious when working on people's homes in Brinnington. 'One builder thought his compressor had packed in during a job but when he went outside he saw it had been unplugged and a couple of lads were carrying it down the road! They dropped it and ran when he shouted at them.' Brinnington's sense of community is not helped by the fact that it has lost all four of its pubs leaving just two Labour and Conservative clubs as its only watering holes. Consigned to history - and leaving the community poorer for it - are the Horsefield Arms, The Farmers Arms, the Jack and Jill and the Cheshire Cat. But for all its problems, Brinnington railway station stands testament to the area's indomitable spirit. Winner of the best-kept station award in 2023, its front hall is covered in racks of clothing and hats and stacks of books, dvds and trinkets of every description. Everything on show is free for anyone to take. Station master Stewart Hall, 43, said: 'We get up to 200 people down here a day and they take what they need. Some people just come down here for a chat, to pass the time and feel better.
BBC News
06-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
New M65 Tebay-style services plans approved
Proposals for a new Tebay-style services in Cheshire have finally been given the go-ahead after a long process which saw the government calling in the - who own the celebrated Tebay Services on the M6 - and the Tatton Estate want to build the stop-off between junctions 7 and 8 of the M56 near and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycock approved the plans for the 39-acre site, which include a fuel station, a farm shop and a 100-bed hotel, with the estimated creation of more than 300 plans were first approved by Cheshire East Council in October 2023, but were later called in for a public inquiry amid objections from local campaigners over the use of green belt land. Tebay Services in Cumbria is regularly declared as one of England's best services, earning praise from Which Magazine and even comedian Frank Skinner, who one said: "If there is a road to heaven, Tebay Services would be the service station on that road."However, campaigner Bill Dixon previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "The consequence of [the plan] is an unnecessary and damaging development with the loss of valuable green belt and considerable safety, congestion and local economic impact."Pennycock said in a letter announcing the decision he agreed with the planning inspector's conclusion and recommendation following the public inquiry in October that the need for a motorway services in the area was "indisputable" and there was no realistic prospect of an equivalent alternative government's decision can be challenged by making an application to the High Court within six weeks. Read more stories from Cheshire on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC North West on X. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
