I saw this article in the Daily Mail sidebar of shame yesterday (I wasn’t looking through it on purpose, you understand… my mouse slipped).
It quite annoyed me.
Firstly, because it is old news. Heard it all before.
Secondly, it’s rubbish.
Yes, the town has it’s problems, but in that respect, it’s no different to other towns of a similar size and population demographic.
During my contracting years, I worked and stayed in many, many towns around the country and I can tell you that plenty of them were much nicer than Luton.
But also, plenty of them weren’t.
It’s always very easy to shout about a town’s failings. Of course, Luton has its rundown areas of poverty and high crime rates – the same as most places, but then it also has its good areas. I live on the edge of town and crime round here is pretty low, I’m pleased to say. It’s a nice enough area. There are houses just a couple of minutes up the road that cost upward of half a million pounds.
We have good road and rail connections – three motorway junctions and three railway stations.
We have an airport.
And a (somewhat dated) shopping mall.
There are plenty of green spaces, too.
So yes, we can complain about the negative aspects of where we live, but let’s acknowledge the positives, too.
The idea that there’s anywhere on the planet that makes Slough look like Monaco is quite difficult to believe. I think the person who said that has not spent any quality time in Slough. Or indeed Monaco. Sir John Betjeman got it bang on target (unlike the friendly bombs, obviously).
Indeed. I’ve been to both and there is no comparison.
Odd that you should mention The Mall……I am listening to our local BBC radio station ( 3CR) and they have been talking about some rich fella who is trying to buy The Arndale ( Luton Mall) for 17 million. Hopes being that he will clean it up and make it nice! I used to go there a lot but not been now for probably over 10 years. I think it was reports of ” gangs of youths” running about creating havoc that put me off!
Seventeen million? Is that all? Blimey.
It’s rare that I go down there now, not for any reason other than being arsed to. When I have gone though, yes: it looks a bit tired and dated, but I’ve never seen any trouble there.
Yep, we miss Luton.
Liar, liar my pants are on fire.
I’ll admit: people having their pants set alight, is a growing concern in the town, right now.
We topped it last year Mark, I am sure we will be back
Yes, “9/10… must try harder”