Aylesbury wins 'worst town' crown

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Aylesbury, the genteel garden town in Buckinghamshire, claimed the top spot
It has knocked Peterborough, 'winner' for the last three years, off its perch
Huddersfield came second for two years in a row in the iLiveHere poll
One surprising entry at number 12 is the cathedral city of Canterbury

Published: 20:15 EDT, 5 January 2022 | Updated: 20:20 EDT, 5 January 2022

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It might not be the first place that springs to mind when ranking the worst places to live in England.

But Aylesbury, the seemingly genteel garden town in Buckinghamshire, has taken the unenviable title – after its own residents contributed to an online poll.

It has knocked Peterborough, 'winner' for the last three years, off its perch in the annual list published by the website iLiveHere.

More than 110,000 voted in the survey, and while Aylesbury may have a harmless reputation in the country at large, its own residents were not so forgiving.

It might not be the first place that springs to mind when ranking the worst places to live in England. But Aylesbury, the seemingly genteel garden town in Buckinghamshire, has taken the unenviable title – after its own residents contributed to an online poll (pictured: Market Square, Aylesbury)

The top 20 list

1. Aylesbury

2. Huddersfield

3. Luton

4. Liverpool

5. Peterborough

6. Bolton

7. Corby

8. Jaywick

9. Slough

10. Bradford

11. Didcot

12. Canterbury

13. Oldham

14. Blackpool

15. Blackburn

16. Rochdale

17. Croydon

18. Grimsby

19. Dover

20. Chatham

One wrote: 'If you're a middle to upper class family or individual looking to move to Aylesbury, then ensure you employ four full-time security guards and a dog and some barbed wire around your house.' Another said: 'As you enter into Aylesbury, you find yourself in a traffic jam. Don't worry, it's all part of the tour. Being stuck in the traffic allows you to observe the magnificent beauty of all the 'trashy citizens' that live there.'

The residents of Peterborough will be relieved to see their title taken by somewhere in the otherwise idyllic Home Counties. Aylesbury has several historic parts and was a noted market town as far back as Anglo Saxon times.

Peterborough, meanwhile, has been relegated to the relative respectability of fifth place.

Huddersfield was in second place for a second year, with one contributor describing 'a BMI [body mass index] of 30' as a minimum requirement to live in the West Yorkshire town.

Another resident made the acerbic comment: 'Not all of Huddersfield is bad… just 70 per cent of it.' The website iLiveHere is full of posts by residents lamenting the awfulness of their respective home towns. There is barely a place in Britain that is not damned in at least one post on the site.

The 2022 list of the 50 worst places to live in England has some familiar names that regularly feature in such polls and tables. Luton, Liverpool, Bolton and Bradford feature in the top ten, along with Slough – the infamous setting of Ricky Gervais's BBC sitcom The Office and of which Sir John Betjeman wrote: 'Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough. It isn't fit for humans now.' But one eyebrow-raising entry at number 12 is the magnificent cathedral city of Canterbury.

Its poor residents only seem to want peace from the church bells and crowds, with one describing the historic city as a 'Yankee Doodle tourist trap'.

Huddersfield (pictured) was in second place for a second year, with one contributor describing 'a BMI [body mass index] of 30' as a minimum requirement to live in the West Yorkshire town.