Londoners moving out to towns - AIBU

[Disgruntledtownie]

I have lived in the same town all my life - great community feel, independent shops etc.

During COVID, we had an absolute influx of people moving out from London which massively drove up prices so locals have had to move away and it’s really changed the whole town.

A lot of the Londoners were campaigning about getting a Pure Gym in the town - one opened, and now our local leisure centre has had to go into liquidation. This is where all the school kids learn to swim, all the teens hang out after school etc and it’s just gone.

An independent family owned shop that has been in our town for over 130 years has had to close as business has dropped.

In the last two years, Gails and a Joe & Juice have opened right next to independent coffee shops - there’s been massive queues outside Gail’s and everyone saying how good it is they can still get their Gail’s fix out of London. But it’s meant the independents have struggled and a few have had to shut.

I totally appreciate that times are tough and spiralling costs and overheads will have impacted these businesses but AIBU to think if you move out of London, you embrace the local shops etc and don’t just change the town into a mini London ??!! It’s just such a shame to see our local community disintegrating around us.

I've always wondered about those little pink pistachio and rosewater cakes. They look a bit prim to taste as wild and exotic as I would like. Has anyone tried them? A misplaced digression but a sincere one!

My 6YO DD loves them. I think they taste like perfume. Clearly she has the more sophisticated palate 🤷‍♀️

You're being ridiculous if you think any town/village/city is going to stay the same. Just like language it evolves over time, sometimes into something completely different. Are you suggesting that someone who moves to a place they weren't born in (ie not a local) should have to be some sort of a passive resident and have no say in the running or direction of their now hometown? Or maybe they have to serve a probationary period? Can you see how daft that sounds.
I would bet many of the locals consider the new gym and the coffee shop an improvement....but they won't be voicing opinions on the local FB community groups. You'll get angry 'locals' banging on about how the town has changed and how much they miss Woolworths and Jenny Crafters Gift Shop (which they liked to wander round and admire the products but buy once a year).
I'd hate to imagine how you'd feel if you lived in Bradford.

I’m from the northeast and now live in the south east. Where I live I’ve done a lot of work in the community, both paid and voluntary, I spend my money in the local shops, I run my own business and provide a service which is only used by locals and my husband runs a youth group (he isn’t from where we live either). Usually, people are really open and welcoming to me but every now and then I get a die hard local who likes to point out I'm an ‘alien’ due to my very northern accent. They harp on about the new comers and what a detrimental effect we have on the local area and the local economy. They say how we have ruined the open spaces as houses are now being built on them and that we don’t care about the local community. I even got partly blamed for the second lot of lockdowns that happened in the south east as apparently ‘the south has to lock down because the bloody northerners couldn’t follow the rules’

As I said, it doesn’t often happen but when it does it boils my piss! It doesn’t matter that we give back, that we spend our money local, that we have been part of the positive changes that have naturally come about with an evolving town. The fact of the matter is that I’m not local and will never be quite accepted by some people.

It's totally Sevenoaks which I find hilarious as it's a London commuter town with a 22 minute direct train into zone 1 😂 it would be rather different if the complaint were coming from someone in Abersoch! it's sad about the leisure centre going bust though.

The reason the independents are closing is because rents on commercial units are too high, it's not to do with the demands of "Londoners". The high street is full of charity shops because the Tory council isn't supporting independents to flourish as they do in many major cities. If OP were to move from Sevenoaks somewhere up north then OP will be the hated Londoner!

(Currently live on the outskirts of Sevenoaks having previously lived in London and grew up in Sheffield - not sure what that qualifies me as - geographically confused?! 😉)

Sorry but I agree with the PP saying it's the locals fault for selling to Londoners - they could have sold to local people for less money but chose not to.

My local high street is a ghost town these days. Just charity shops, hairdressers and cheap tat. I wish some Londoners would move in and liven it up a bit. The "locals" have run it into the ground by doing all their shopping on amazon and at the massive out of town retail parks.

sounds like she wanted to work no more than 14 hours a week as it would affect her benefits to me.

Thanks. They don't sound like my bag either! I have seen similar recipes but I never get around to trying.