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 love GAILS

No because you will infect everyone and bring about the apocalypse 🤪

It's not good. I know somebody who briefly worked in the production kitchen and I wouldn't eat anything from there even if I was prepared to pay their silly prices.

I think prices in Sevenoaks have gone down compared to Tun Wells and other towns because of COVID. Sevenoaks was always such a prime commuter town because of the short commute. Now many are not travelling up every day, they are willing to make a longer journey.

The Leisure centre has been in trouble for years.

@Spamalam FFS how do you know our master plan?

What if we were born elsewhere but moved to London after university? How long do we have to be there for before we have to stay forever?

PS could these Londoners please bring some semi decent nightlife with them.

Forever, once you’re tainted it’s the beginning of the end! I’m on the planning force for erecting sky high, razor sharp barbed wire fences to keep you all in there 🤣

YABU OP. Diversity is great. Most 'Londoners' weren't born there - they were from other places who moved there for work, then chose to move on.

FS we’ve been rumbles guys! MN has cracked our plan to turn all these backwash commuter towns into London!!

It’s funny OP complaining about Londoners when historically the only good thing about where she lives is actually its proximity to London.

This.
They also can’t do anything on their own. Has to be a pack of them doing bootcamps, cycling on a Sunday, jogging even walking the dog whatever.
The country clay pigeon shoots, horse riders and just normal locals walking have been pushed out by brightly coloured tutting types who don’t actually appreciate where they are ( they don’t know anything about the actual countryside). Actually I tell a lie. We do have a fancy foraging website where you can book a 3 hour class for £60. (Alternatively ask a local at the pub who works in the countryside and they’ll give a heads up for the price of a pint. Obviously you’d have to talk to one of “sad” people that lived there all there life so probably not worth it).

If you wear Sweaty Betty all day then at Gails you will find your people.

The only times I use the words ‘sweaty’ and ‘Betty’ together is when I’ve had to run after the kids 🤣

TWells is hugely overrated. I don't get the hype. The Royal Victoria shopping centre is shocking, a real ghost town. Also, lots of deprivation and quite shabby in parts.

My Essex commuter town seems to grow more crowded every day. There has been a huge influx of Londoners since the lockdown. Everywhere you go there are more and more rabbit hutch new builds being thrown up, and the traffic is beyond a joke. As I type, I can hear the booming and screaming of boy racer engines. They woke me up at five this morning. (Side issue, I know, but HOW do these bastards get away with having such loud engines? People have been complaining about this for decades and nothing is ever done.)

It isn’t fair to cram so many people into such a small area. It’s not just a question of roads and housing and GP appointments. It’s about quality of life. The more people you squeeze into a particular area, the more noise and traffic and crime you are going to experience.

Try living in a very small town or one of the adjoining villages where the developers have taken advantage of the hour train journey to London plus lack of local development plan to build countless new estates consisting of £1/2million+ houses, doubling our population. Without increasing any of the local amenities, so no new.doctors, roads not suitable for the amount of traffic, not enough school places, etc etc.

Plus the loss of a huge amount of our green spaces and The incomers not understanding how rural life is totally different to living in London. No respect for the countryside.

Not sure we can blame them for our lack of shops though

And you don't think people have flocked to London? Do you hear Londoners complaining about people "not from around here" taking over their town?

The fucking nerve of them having friends and a community and enjoying it out in nature, spending money helping someone's business by getting foraging classes instead of just getting the info for free, the horror.

Im a Londoner. I find this post really offensive. Mind you I'm not planning on leaving. I love living somewhere that has welcomed people from everywhere for centuries.

My best friend who grew up in east London but had to move out (away from her family) when she was pregnant just to afford a modest 2 bed flat would be interested to see your post

I don't think OP is coming back...

Of course not. Light the blue touch paper and retire.

My company is one of the biggest house builders in the county - guess who we sell the properties to...hint: Not UK residents. Maybe it's not completely the Tories because housing is being built - it's just being sold to the wrong people!

Deal! DFL’s??!

They aren’t enjoying nature. That’s the point. Nature is there already. They need proper paths, lots of kit, start and finish points and organisations. They don’t actually give a shit about the countryside. It’s an amenity.

No they just don’t understand the countryside!! No one is allowed to have a group of friends in the countryside, you must do things alone and if you don’t you’re clearly just a feral Londoner who doesn’t get it.
How dare they walk the dog with their friends! They don’t appreciate where they are because they swam about in bright colours.
Real people from the countryside only wear dirty tweed.