Tourists brand picturesque village 'a dump' - but locals have brilliant response
Tourists have branded picturesque village 'a dump' - but locals have hit back with a heartfelt response defending the community.
Tiverton in Devon, has been dubbed one of the UK's most depressing towns. The location has historic roots and natural beauty but came fifth on a gloomy list by Ilivehere, an online review site which claimed its weariness is down to its "oppressive underbelly". Yet the town boasts a castle, the Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life, a board games cafe, railway centre, stately home and even a vineyard and badger watch.
But it still didn't fare well on the review site with one reviewer saying: "On a Sunday morning any trip to the shops involves a slalom of various piles of vomit, dropped kebabs, curries etc and splatters of blood from various fights that have erupted the previous night."
Locals defended Tiverton's 'lovely people' (AFP via Getty Images)Another warned about longer stays in the town, saying: "In short, Tiverton is great for an amusing visit to laugh at the local wildlife but more than a few hours stay and you will find yourself in some sort of unfortunate incident of an X-files type nature."
Tiverton, surrounded by nature and close to the sea, seems lovely on the surface. It's an ideal base for exploring Devonshire countryside and nearby places like Exeter, Exmouth, and Dartmoor. But a Mumsnet user who asked if it was a good place to live received a flood of negative responses. "Tiverton is a massive dump," one person replied. "Really deprived and one of the most dangerous places in Devon. Used to be statistically the most violent place in the whole SW outside Plymouth. Dreadful schools in the area, especially secondary. [It] has a bad reputation."
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Another user suggested considering Exeter instead, while a third said Tiverton as full of "charity shops, rude people, and anti-social behaviour." Data supports the claims, ranked Tiverton among the top five most dangerous small towns in Devon and 10% higher than the county's average crime rate.
Locals, however strongly disagreed. One person said on Mumsnet: "I live in Tiverton, there are lots of nicer places to live but it is fine. I think the previous posters have been quite harsh. As with anywhere, there are people who have barely set foot outside the town and some of them can be a bit dodgy but most people are lovely."
A street cleaner tidies the market in Tiverton (AFP via Getty Images)They also mentioned: "There are a lot of toddler groups, some nice parks, dance classes, beavers/rainbows and a good leisure centre. There are some very active Facebook community pages which are really helpful."
MP Ian Liddell-Grainger thinks the negative poll about the town is just grumbling. He told DevonLive: "This was not a poll in the real sense of the word, just a chance for the usual malcontents to do a bit of bad-mouthing. He added: "Any exercise such as this has no value at all; it merely allows a section of the population with nothing more useful to do with their time to voice their own frustrations."
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