20 August 2010

Oh we do like to live beside the seaside, beside ourselves with glee, where, if we’re lucky, the brass bands play as in title. Sustainable development means sustainable communities with a good quality of life. So what do the Bank of Scotland say are the best seaside towns in Scotland to live in? And are they right? How can they tell? Are Fraserburgh and Peterhead really the second and third best places to live?

What the survey said. According to the BoS survey the best seaside towns to live in, in descending order, are Stonehaven, Fraserburgh, Peterhead, North Berwick, Dunbar, Montrose, St Andrews, Dalgety Bay, Leven and Burntisland. All are in the east of Scotland, with Aberdeenshire and Fife accounting for seven. We are told that the “the Quality of Life index aims to quantify where living standards are highest in Scotland by ranking local performance across a range of indicators, including the labour market, the housing market, the environment, education and health”. But we are not given the details of this so we don’t know what exactly the factors are that are included, how the statistics on them are gathered, what weighting is put on the various indicators.

This is really pretty unsatisfactory. What exactly, or even not very exactly, does the Bank of Scotland mean by Quality of Life? We just don’t know. (The press release provides no reference to any more information on this.) It might be that their method is quite satisfactory and then again it might not. So am I saying that this survey as reported from the press release in many newspapers is worthless? Yes, that is what I am saying. And it’s not just the Bank of Scotland which is guilty. It’s the newspapers who print undigested, and unquestioned, chunks from press releases.

Now here’s a funny (funny suspicious) thing. In another Bank of Scotland press release earlier this year on the affordability of housing in seaside towns the four towns wihich had the greatest increase in house prices over the last ten years were listed as Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Montrose and Stonehaven. I am fairly sure that BoS's idea of quality of life is biased towards housing costs and gives a low weighting to the more subjective, difficult to quantify factors, which contribute substantially to quality of life.

There will be further on this subject of the quality of life in seaside towns in a subsequent article. For the moment I wish to raise a few doubts about some towns in the listing. Fraserburgh is a fine place. I know it well. But I do not think there are too many people who would consider it should come at second place in the list. Peterhead, likewise, is a town with a poor reputation (especially among people who’ve never been there). Though maligned unfairly can it really be the seaside town with the third best quality of life. Dalgety Bay – I don’t want to unfairly talk down anywhere, especially since I’ve never been there, but isn’t this a conglomeration of commuter housing estates? St Andrews is OK, but Leven?  I am surprised that North Berwick doesn’t head the list – beaches, attractive coastline, easy access to Edinburgh with its culture, nightlife, shops, festivals. And the town centre is certainly not as run-down as many small Scottish towns, seaside and non-seaside. But that’s enough. It’s so easy to offend people! But if you have any views about the BoS list or anything I’ve written, please leave your comments in the space below.

And if you wish the full lyrics of that fine old music hall song, I do like to be beside the seaside, along with some nice pictures of bygone days at the seaside click the link.

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