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?

In in a really nice part of Liverpool and the streets are clean! Our local parks are lovely (we have a few nearby) and a local library (although I haven’t been for years). There are potholes but not an excessive amount. House prices are really high where we are though!

To say that everything and everywhere is awful is very depressing! I'm in the Croydon Borough too and it's really not that bad especially the southern bit!

Highbury is full of dogshit, and the leafier the street the more of the shit. It’s so rank.

Ten years ago people would have cited my city as one of the desirable places in terms of services and amenities. Now you can't move for dog shit - several local beauty spots are now off limits to anyone who isn't taking a dog to shit there, and the residential streets are disgusting. Litter is piled up around the few bins which are never emptied. Dog bins have been removed, no public toilets, no street cleaning, street lighting reduced, less police presence where needed. Homelessness off the scale, parks run down and scruffy. It's not a deprived area, though like any city it has pockets of deprivation. There are just no services.

Aren’t most councils in trouble & outside or the cities there will be more of an ageing population which adds to the issue.

I think housing is a big issue, councils used to have more of their own stock now they pay landlords who have raised the prices even more due to interest rates.

I do think the dog shit issue is a bit different from the rest, in that it should never have been anybody's job to go around cleaning it up at taxpayers' expense. There are too many dogs, and their owners are disgracefully lazy and selfish. We counted 18 dog turds on a 15 minute school run - that's not council neglect, that's selfish cunts who shouldn't be allowed to own animals.

North East Out skirts of Newcastle/Gateshead not all Roses however we have an nhs dentist, gp appointments are fine, housing is affordable, our local schools are good or outstanding, easy to get to theatrea galleries etc sadly local council has juat shut 2 swimming pools obviously not great however the ones still open are newly done up etc lota of parks etc nearby that are nice and well maintained and a few that aren't. All in all I think generally we have a better quality of live than our families in the south but we so have jobs that aren't dependent on where we are.

Wandsworth? Weekly bin collection, street cleaning the day afterwards, they just rebuilt the library on Northcote Rd so clearly there’s funding there and it’s the cheapest council tax in the country. Still loads of dog shit but that’s not really a council issue is it?

Hmm interesting about it being worse outside of cities. We currently live in (outskirts of) a city and often dream of rural living but perhaps the gain of views and peace would be offset against even worse services...

Similar story by us. I have to be so hyper vigilant whenever I walk anywhere. It's just grim!

In Bristol things get worse year on year. There's a decline in all public services - unswept streets, litter, less bins, less public loos, swimming pools closing, the museum with paint peeling off the walls, street signs faded out, graffiti, pot holes, nobody can get a GP appointment or find a dentist, sewage being flushed into the river that passes through the city.

The change has been so gradual that I kind of accepted it. Then, I went to central London for a week. Good God, what a shock. Everything there looks just so smart - like Bristol used to 20 years ago....lots of investment, great public transport, tidy streets. It made me want to weep for Bristol. Hard to have pride in a place which is being systematically turned into a shit hole.

So sad to see the Tory under-funding of councils and public services reducing once great places to such an extent that people don't want to live in them any more. I've just moved out to Somerset.

I'm another who would pay more tax if I knew it would be spent on the things that make life good for all of us rather than funded into crap projects like HS2.

Hmm not sure if I agree with most of these. Lived in very posh Hertsmere (Oliver Dowden's constituency). GPs were useless and most of the kids play parks were completely neglected. Certainly not in a better state than where we are now; in a "poor" city in the north-east of England.

Poole! Buses, libraries, schools, parks, surestart type funds and housing. High St is a bit rough and ready but it's easy to live there safely

As soon as I saw the title I knew the first posts would say London. That's exactly the line that many politicians have spun to us over the last decade. In reality though, London is hugely varied and just as poorly treated as the rest of the country, it just manifests itself in different ways sometimes.

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

Very much this; my outer north London borough is an absolute (dog)shitshow - feels increasingly bleak, filthy and run-down, not to mention ‘edgy’ in all the wrong kinds of ways. We are currently plotting a move elsewhere - although I’m not sure anywhere is completely sheltered from these things right now!

Just read through the thread properly - looks like there are quite a few of us Outer London malcontents!

I know quite a lot of people locally who, like us, are planning their moves out of London to more typically middle-class areas, partly for all the reasons listed above and partly for schooling (our previously good schools are increasingly basket cases too).

It's almost like Central London is kept as some kind of showing off Disneyland and the rest of us can go whistle.

Outer SW London Borough, great public transport, schools reportedly good, doctors good, excellent libraries and on the whole dogshit is picked up. However we pay about £350 a month council tax for a two bedroom cottage.

Wokingham is pretty good, but is not a cheap place to live!

I dont think price of house means anything. Poole has Sandbanks and some of the most expensive property in the country outside of London and the council is virtually bankrupt. Services are shocking, no NHS dentists in the entire county taking on new patients (bar kids and only if the parents go private with the same dentist), the state of the roads and pavements are disgusting with pot holes, rubbish and dog shit everywhere.

It's because that's investors see coming from other countries. End of.

I recommend Cambridge. It’s not perfect but it’s beautiful, has great schools, good public services etc. You have to be rich to afford it though

Wrong thread? I don’t think OP’s going to move to a water park 🤣