Winchester still the best place to live in England
Winchester City Council is celebrating again this year after the area was named the second best place to live in the UK behind Edinburgh in last night’s Channel 4 programme Location, Location, Location.
Winchester was praised for many things including quality of life, a higher than the national average life expectancy - with women expected to live to 82 and men 80, impressively low levels of crime – including car thefts at half the national average and thefts from homes only 2.3 in every 1,000, and fantastic cultural and heritage opportunities including the Cathedral, the Theatre Royal and the City Council’s Museums.
It must, however, be recognised that we lost the top spot due to environmental factors. On average each Winchester resident emits 3.1 tonnes of carbon per year – far higher than in any other of the top 20 places to live.
The City Council is working hard to address this by creating a climate change plan for the district to encourage the Council, residents and organisations to do their bit to reduce their impact. Have a look at our website www.winchester.gov.uk/climatechange for tips on what you can do to help. We have also been very successful with our Alternate Bin Collection Scheme which the latest figures show is now preventing about 40% of waste going into landfill. Landfill sites emit methane which contributes to global warming.
The residents of Winchester are also trying to change the City’s impact on the environment. A new group - Winchester Action on Climate Change - has just launched.
Leader of the Council, Cllr George Beckett commented: “We are all delighted to be named the best place to live in England even though we are now second to Edinburgh in the UK. I must say Edinburgh is a wonderful city and a worthy competitor to Winchester in this contest. We are determined to continue making changes and get ourselves back to the top spot next year. A huge thank you goes to all the workers, volunteers and involved residents who help make Winchester such a great place to live.”
Another area the Council is working hard on is to ensure the local economy remains strong, and is trying to improve the buzz in the city between 5pm and 9pm when people head home from work and before they come in for an evening out.
To get involved and give views on this, residents can visit www.winchester.gov.uk/eveningeconomy and let us know what you want to do of an evening.
To see more about what makes Winchester a great place to live have a look at some of our webpages.
www.visitwinchester.co.uk
www.winchester.gov.uk/heritage