Are there any areas of England with decent public services and amenities?

[croptopflipflop]

Not really sure where to post this but I am just finding my local area incredibly depressing at the moment. Pot holes everywhere, parks run down, libraries closing, litter and dog poo on the pavements etc - just a general sense of disrepair.

So my question is - is this just England in 2024 or are there some places which seem well maintained, where public services are good, where there's decent social care for those who need it?

If so, where?

London.

Agree. I've lived in 4 London boroughs and the libraries, leisure centres and children's centres were excellent. Parks very good too, especially those run by Royal Parks or Corporation of London. There is dog poo and litter everywhere though, except when I lived in the City of London which was very clean (but pricey, and had fewer amenities). GP and dental services are good (not brilliant but at least they are accessible and plenty of options for NHS patients, which seems to not exist elsewhere). Public transport is generally excellent in the inner boroughs. No idea about potholes as we don't have a car.

Altrincham, Greater Manchester
Or any other loaded area really. Many of which are in London...

Thanks for the replies. I guess the answer is to move to a richer area then...I'd better get saving! Is it as simple as more expensive area, more expensive houses, higher council tax, more money to pay for the services? Or are there other factors at play?

Make sure to buy centrally though. The outer boroughs have all the potholes, and no shortage of litter and dog poo.

Yes to London, although it does depend entirely on your borough...

My borough is bankrupt, and everywhere and everything is dreadful. More central than us is fine, though.

Xpost with TheYear!

London probably isn't doable on my budget. Is there a list somewhere of the local councils that are well funded / on the verge of bankruptcy?

It's basically on how many poorer people live in the area. That means more demand for services and they struggle. Outer London, particularly Croydon is a good example of somewhere not to be. The council is bankrupt though there must also be a few others heading that way, Labour and Conservative.

I think it also depends on the particular area within an area. I live in the north. Parts of the town I'm in are awful, long waiting times / bad service at the doctors, bins not being emptied on a very regular basis, litter everywhere etc. However, I'm really lucky, in my corner of the town, some big houses but lots of small terraces and extremely multicultural. We have an amazing doctors that you can get in to see at short notice, my bin men are fabulous and will happily take a bit extra recycling etc if I bob out and see them. Streets are swept by one of those little machines quite regularly, even my postman is the best! Oh, and they've just opened a new library!

@MustBeNapTime sounds ideal! Don't suppose you want to share whereabouts that is? Totally understand if not!

@bombastix eesh is it as simple as moving away from the poorer people? That sounds so depressing. I have friends in Scandinavia and could weep at the public services they have. I'd happily pay more taxes if I thought the government was actually spending it with wisely. No idea where all the money goes at the moment!

@croptopflipflop

no there is not
local tax to low and councils starved of funds and having to pay too much for social care and special needs due to lack of people since brexit.

the copy try is an utter mess and brexit means that local tax’s should double to give a decent service.

that’s the start of brexit costs

In this country yes it is. It's very notable how much better services are in places with lesser demand. Kensington has rather good services because they are barely used. In Croydon, the demand has literally overwhelmed the number of people actually contributing Council tax. Old, sick, poor, lots of social housing? These are markers of increased needs. The truth is a nice countryside home with few residents and wealthy ones will be better resourced. Harsh but true.

Bits of all counties have merit, just not all. London has bits, certainly not all (Londoner as was and visit regularly and can see the deterioration), with some of it looking filthy and very ill kept. NE Hampshire where I live, again bits are fine, but the roads are appalling, councils hide, local parish councils take and don't give, libraries shut some days and major towns having less infrastructure now than in the 60s per head of population. What's a leisure centre? We are being charged huge amounts for what seems like nothing for the majority of us and don't get me started on police, I'd have more chance of seeing a live Dodo! We also need more hospitals, with one town having grown 10 fold, but they can't even agree on renewing the one that's crumbling let alone building more! Interestingly, we are just seeing the local MPs, a very rare species, appearing on social media and campaigning and bragging about how they've dealt with issues such as county lines (yep, welcome to the new market town issues) and patently they haven't, just wanted to get their names above the headlines.

All councils are in trouble.
.
They are being asked again to make huge cuts to their budget and most will only be able to deliver the most basic of statutory services whilst having to increase council tax. We will be paying more for less.

Some councils are looking at bin collections being every 3 weeks, cutting down on school crossing patrols, turning off CCTV, stopping non essential but important schemes like employment schemes for people with disabilities

This is what happens when the government reduces their budget by 45% and doesn't have a plan on how to manage social care. Most of the oval budgets go on social care which also has massive issues.

Yes totally echo what PPs have said about paying more for less. I just don't get this. If there's more money...where is it going?

I live in a rich/smart area (as a carer, not property owner). Potholes in the road outside house and generally now, and lose/broken paving everywhere. Only in the last few years. Library only saved form planned closure due to a very determined public campaign (5+ years ago). The park is pretty sad and neglected in parts as the number of employees has been slashed. Access to GPs pretty good, certainly not as bad as many have it. Recent contact with social services good and responsive (but don't know how it is more widely). So it's mixed.

It's sad to see the park, but how can they spend on that when essential services such as children's SS are cut?

I live in London but am thinking about moving back to Northampton. The local council in Northampton was declared bankrupt a few years back and obviously West Northamptonshire suffered. Nobody knew where the money went (though giving it to a private firm couldn't have helped matters). Northampton is not a cool town. Or salubrious in places. Or even well kept. The council are redeveloping the town centre (Greyfriars bus station site and market square) but most people go shopping in Milton Keynes (🤭).

So why do I want to live there? Good transport links. My oldest friend in the world lives nearby. My family live nearby. Close to some lovely countryside, stately homes, it's got two theatres and lots of parks. Housing is reasonably priced. I've lived in much worse dumps in London.

My point is, OP, that sometimes your dump means much more to you than you realise. I read a post on here recently from a person who wanted ideas on how to improve her area at low cost. She got some excellent ideas. She knew her estate was a dump and she wanted to do a small bit to improve it. I admire that. So maybe instead of abandoning your crap town have a look at why it might be good and why you might want to stay.

You could always run for the local council...

Beverley in East Yorkshire is excellent.

Oh no, I'm in Westminster and the dog poo is off the charts atm. I'm not sure what's going on. It's an epidemic. Really. And we have massive bins on every corner (which tbf are emptied at least twice a day). AND dedicated dog parks.There is absolutely no excuse. It's gross. Sure, our council tax is low but is really grim out there.

You make a good point about trying to improve things and if I was sure I was living in my "forever" town maybe i would, but we've sort of ended up here and thinking of moving in the not too distant future anyway. We don't have any family ties etc to our current area.

Mind you, hearing about some other areas I'm slightly wondering if it might be a case of better the devil you know. We can get doctors appointments fairly quickly and we have an NHS dentist...

Our village in North Hampshire is pretty good.

Yes we have potholes but we also have a decent local council. Still got a library & a tip. Generally no dog poo. The parish council arranges volunteer litter picks, and we clear footpaths. Village hall has just reopened a nursery, we have a new events co-ordination. The community association arranges social stuff. Quite a lot of it is by volunteers but it works well.
NHS dentist. Good gp surgery, reasonable primary schools.

Senior schools are our weak point.

Hmm my town in the south east has a very good bus service, excellent libraries, parks all well maintained and keep being improved. Not much dog poo about but I think you’ll always get some as that’s down to the owners! Not much litter, lots of community action involved there, with regular beach cleans happening. Good schools, doctors surgery, farmers markets run by the council. There are some roads full of pot holes though, someone I know recently wrote their car off on one!.