Top Of The Towns (from Dorset Beaches)

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Top of the towns

By Daily Echo reporters

CLEAN BEACHES: One of the stunning photos in the Daily Echo's Dorset Coast book Mudeford beach huts

IT'S NOT just the ancient Priory, flower-filled streets and the iconic beach-hut colony of Mudeford that makes Christchurch Britain's top seaside town. It's not just the shops, the parks and the litter-free roads. Those are just the things you can see. It's what you can't see that makes all the difference.

Coast's editor, Clare Gogerty says: "We trawled banks of official data to come up with the top ten best coastal towns, rating them in terms of best schools, quality of coastline and employment."

And what the Coast researchers discovered was that Christchurch topped the polls for low crime, high employment and the clean beaches of Mudeford, Friar's Cliff and Avon. The town's proximity to the New Forest was another factor, as was its international food-market and nationally-recognised restaurants such as the FishWorks.

The town's motto Where Life Is Pleasant' has certainly been vindicated by Coast but it comes as no surprise to chief executive Michael Turvey. "Christchurch is a great place to live," he says. " When people move here, they never want to leave. It's a quality of life factor."

Marc Lockyer and Sarah Burslem who live at Iford with eight-and-a-half-week-old daughter Chrystal agree. They really enjoy the town. "It's quiet most of the time; and friendly but I've never been anywhere else," said Marc. "The Quomps are cool. There's lots of places to eat; nice restaurants and pubs."

Partner Sarah agrees. She's lived in Christchurch for 10 years and went to school there. She rates the schools highly and thinks it's a great town to shop in.' Carol and Keith Hogg have lived in the Stanpit area of Christchurch for nine years, moving there from Bournemouth where they lived for 14 years after moving from Leicester. They like nothing better than walking in the Priory grounds or on the Quay "I love everything about it: the people are nice, the area is nice, there's lots of conservation land so the wildlife is very good," said Mrs Hogg. The facilities are good and there's a good sense of community, which is unusual nowadays."

Cllr Alan Griffiths, leader of Christchurch Borough Council, is delighted by the Coast findings. "This is a real accolade for Christchurch," he says. "Having lived here all my life I know what a fantastic town it is and how it offers the highest quality of life, not only for our residents but also for thousands of visitors every year.

"We have managed to retain the best parts of the traditional British lifestyle that so many people come here to enjoy. We combine this with a vibrant economy, beautiful rivers and coastlines and some of the best restaurants in the country."

And it's not as if the competition was weak. Christchurch beat trendy Falmouth in Cornwall into second place and Brighton - dubbed by Coast as the British San Francisco - down to third.

Christchurch was also in competition with St Andrews in chilly Fife, Grange-Over-Sands in Cumbria, and the yachttie paradise of Salcombe in Devon, described by Coast as Fulham-on-Sea'.

Other contenders were Victorian Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, the Dracula town of Whitby in Yorkshire, Southwold in Suffolk and picture-postcard Tenby in Wales.

For more stunning pictures of Christchurch - and the rest of our beautiful Dorset coast from Chewton Bunny in the east to Lyme Regis in the west, pick up a copy of the Daily Echo's Dorset Coast book. See the link below for details of how to get your copy.

5:29pm Wednesday 7th May 2008

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