To think England is too crowded

[toadworthy]

In my town on the South coast it really is chaos and getting worse all the time. Roads are a nightmare. There are never enough school places despite doubling the entry in all primaries. Soaring rents. Building sites all over.

AIBU to mind?
What's it like where you are?

Ah, I see.

I can only really speak for London but it has become noticeably more crowded in the decade I have lived here. I've just moved from north to east London. In my old place the council was giving permission for blocks of flats to be built along an already busy bus route. Sometimes we ha dot wait for several buses to pass before getting on one and the local tube shut at least once a fortnight due to overcrowding. And yet no sign from the council of what is was going to do about this...more buses etc. I've just registered at my new docs in east London where there was a 3 week wait just to register and they told me on average I'll wait 2 weeks to see a doc unless it is an emergency. The part of east London I am in is hugely more crowded than my old part of London, with Eastern Europeans resident in a lot of the properties so it also depends where in London you are I think. Anyway my long term plan is to bugger off to lovely Yorkshire or Scotland where I have family at some point! :)

TBH I think overcrowded and overworked doctors' surgeries has more to do with underfunding/under-resourcing, plus the ageing population, than Eastern Europeans or any other recent immigrants.

We are crowded, and anyone saying we are not should have a little look at this table. The why is far more complicated than blaming immigration though.

Like it or not, the U.K. Has the fourth highest population in Europe, behind Russia, Germany and France, and is one of the most densely populated (The Netherlands, Belgium, Channel Islands, Monaco and Malta are more so)

If we are going to have a reasonable debate about it, let's do it armed with actual facts shall we?

TBH I think overcrowded and overworked doctors' surgeries has more to do with underfunding/under-resourcing, plus the ageing population, than Eastern Europeans or any other recent immigrants

GP services are a big issue where my mum lives, in an area with very few immigrants - market town with an ageing population, go figure ...

Re transport in London, it's been bad for a long time - in the mid 1990s I prefered to cycle all year round, despite rain, potholes, homicidal taxi drivers and diesel fumes - rather than change at Kings Cross.

oh absolutely re doctors waiting lists just saying that recent migrants seem prepared to live (or have no choice but to ) in v crowded houses p, they just raided a two bed flat round the corner from me and there were 17 people living there. And that is sadly not an uncommon story round these parts with awful landlords cramming the desperate in.

Our town is starting to feel pressure on roads and services as a result of new estates being built with developers promoting them to London commuters, and the Sunday Times regularly running articles telling people to move here as it's a quick commute to London and has low (for London) property prices.

Toad I was at work when I posted before so couldn't say much
But yes it's heartbreaking
Many parts of the country that were quiet are no longer.
Lived in London all my life and numbers are making it unbearable, I'm leaving as soon as my parents gone, they are why I stay
But increasingly I wonder where i can go
And yes the loss of green space is awful
No one seems to care much about over population though

When Londoners escape we drive the rest of you up the wall though yes?

I don't think it is overcrowded I think there is not enough infrastructure for everyone and we seemed to be lumped together in certain areas whereas other parts of the U.K. is almost deserted.

Parts of the South East that I know well are most definitely not overcrowded. Could you be more specific about which cities/towns/villages you're talking about?

I now feel that i should state that at no point in my post did i say that i belived that immigrants are in any way to blame for the shortage of doctors and too many houses being built

I think its a real shame i have to clarify that

Should say that i feel i have to clarify

Brokenbiscuits try Thurrock, Medway, Thanet, Barking, Dagenham, Thamesmead or Streatham. Those are all areas where I have friends who have been trying to get into social housing for over 10 years.

live on s coast
just looked out of window
can't see anyone

are we allowed to start racist threads now ?

London is getting unbearable.
Roads full, public transport full.

Green spaces crowded. We are losing green bits everyday, either for bog building projects or front gardens paved over for parking. It seems every tiny free space id getting built over.

It's tiring, it's dirty. It's sad.
It used to be a great city for living.

Seems overcrowded to me.

I live in a much bigger country, and whenever I go back to the uk I just seem to sit in traffic or queue for things! Seems like a ton of people in a very small space (and my family are from a rural part of the UK)

Christmas, Easter, bank holidays, sunny weekends. Forget it if you want to go swimming, to the seaside, the zoo, safari park, bowling, shopping. It's just packed with hordes of people all doing the same thing!

I think the uk needs to make some large offshore islands like the Palm in Dubai. Spread everybody about a bit.

Oh I also have friends in east London - no chance, you can't even get IN the swimming pool on a Sunday!

are we allowed to start racist threads now ?

Yes, well, I think people like Farage and Boris J have sort of made them seem respectable.

It's getting so crowded my favourite table at the pub was taken the other night . I didn't dare tell them that I always sit there.

Am looking over acres of ancient forest.... Nope - no crowding here!

So ridiculous - people saying move somewhere less crowded.

I live in the countryside - 6 hours from London if you drive through the night, probably 7 -8 to arrive at rush hour. Nearest city 1.5 hours away, again commuting would probably make it 2 hours and a 150 mile round trip.
Great commute - yeah - let's all move to the countryside.

Not that much, sorry.
So UK's population in 1950 was 51 million and in 2013 - 63 million.

For comparision - Indonesia went from 73 million in 1950 to 250 million in 2013.
Brazil wentnfrom 54 million in the 50s to 200 million in 2013.
Of course it's worse in China - from 544 million to 1.4 billion in 2013, and India from 376 million to 1.25 billion.

Bottom line - the Earth population is ncreasing. That is the trend. Public services should increase too or we'll be back to the Middle Ages.
On a second thouhght - that'll sort out some of the population growth complications (include sarcasm). Don't you worry, the Government will find a way. Or another.

I used to live in South East London and that was hideously overcrowded.

Rural Berkshire, in a small village, not so much. Could get a GP appointment with my favourite doctor on the same day, kids all went to the village school, and you could get a 3 bed for £800 per month.

Now I live in Scotland, and it definitely isn't overcrowded.

North Wales here, it's beautiful, close to big cities and the coast, and isn't crowded. There are however new housing estates springing up everywhere, but there are never additional schools/hospitals etc to allow for them. Thus schools are always at capacity and getting into a GP surgery is nigh on impossible.

All those fields and empty green spaces people can see from planes? Well amazingly enough they aren't just sitting there waiting to be built on, they're mostly agricultural farmland. In case you were wondering, that's where we grow most of our food.