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Poll: Aylesbury Vale is 15th best place to live in Britain
IT’S official – Aylesbury Vale is the finest place to live in Buckinghamshire.
The district came 15th nationally in the Halifax 2011 Quality of Life Survey, the sixth year in a row it has made the top 15 locations.
Though the Vale dropped three places from its 2010 standing, it still came comfortably above the likes of Wycombe, Chiltern and South Bucks, which fell from 11th in the table to 63rd.
The sixth annual survey tracks where the highest living standards are in the United Kingdom by ranking local performance using indicators including the housing market, employment, education, the environment, crime and health.
This year the chart was topped by the Hampshire district of Hart, with the top 50 places dominated by locations in southern England.
The figures for the Vale show 94 per cent of residents are in a good state of health, with an average life expectancy for males of just over 80 years.
The region also has a relatively high employment rate of 77.6 per cent and average gross weekly earnings of £720, higher than the national average of £606.
However, house prices are generally six times average local earnings, which is above the UK average of 5.25 times earnings, while the number of households with good broadband access is eight per cent below the typical level.
Although there are hardly any vacant properties, population density, traffic levels and carbon dioxide emissions remain low in the Vale.
Residents also enjoy a good climate, with less average annual rainfall and more weekly sunshine than the UK as a whole.
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Weather for Aylesbury
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 6 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
RedKite
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 06:41 AMTake a look at the view in the picture....soon to be destroyed by a HUGE monstrosity of destruction - the ARLA 140 acre development....wonder what will happen to this ranking then........but who cares....certainly not AVDC
mulchie
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 06:36 PMDon't tell them in that there London, They will all be moving up here with their shoes and their hoity toity London ways
RGM
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 04:18 PM"IT’S official – Aylesbury Vale is the finest place to live in Buckinghamshire." - Its where the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy live and where Santa takes his holidays.
JR
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 04:23 PM"Average gross weekly earnings of £720" Yeah, right. Even my manager doesn't earn that much. Then again, I suspect they also took into account wages from the high rollers in the many quaint villages around the vale - there's the many at or near the top of the BCC and AVDC trees, and let's not forget we also have some famous actors, racing drivers etc etc. As for the empty houses (or lack of), as soon as builders realise they can't sell them on the normal market, the virtually give them away to the many housing associations that seem to have appeared, who, in turn, fill them with anyone & everyone. And talking of air quality, I very much doubt that anyone living within 100 yards of the Tring Road (especially at the Adams Garage multijunction) would agree. Even on a clear day, if you look towards Aylesbury from the viewpoint at Halton you can see the cloud of pollution over the town.. It's stupid nonsensical surveys like these that give council leaders the wrong impression. They look at these results through their rose tinted specs & truly believe they are doing a fantastic job.
LocalBoy
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 12:24 PMRemember that "The Vale of Aylesbury" includes everywhere from Steeple Claydon to Wendover, Hadenham to Wing. Aylesbury is just one part in the centre and any "bad" figures for the town can be offset by the open space and small villages that make up 95% of the area. Ofcourse emissions OVERALL are not bad ... because of the open space. Aylesbury itself is a different story - and that is where a large percentage of the population of the vale live. Using the same perameters the best place to live should actually be a small cottage (where a healthy person lives) in the middle of the peak district .... no empty houses, no pollution, 100% employment (assuming the person has a job), very little crime, etc, etc. This "Survey" means nothing, just a collection of random statistics, manipulated to create what the Halifax want it to say. (Halifax sell houses and provide mortgages.)
chuffinelle
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 10:55 AM"Although there are hardly any vacant properties, population density, traffic levels and carbon dioxide emissions remain low in the Vale." HOW can you say there are hardly any vacant properties? Quote from the STOPhampdenfields webpage ref. Aylesbury - “In less than one minute I found houses for sale on Buckingham Park, Hartwell Meadows, Berry Vale, Grand Central, Princess Mary Gate and Foskett Way, Stoke Mandeville - I didn't bother to look any further." As for traffic levels and carbon emissions low - don't forget that ARLA is coming to blight the Vale?
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