Prospective Conservative Parliamentary candidate Ian Liddell-Grainger has dismissed a newspaper’s poll ranking Tiverton among the UK’s most depressing towns as misleading, inaccurate - and pointless.
Sun readers’ votes placed Tiverton eighth in its national league table, just behind Yeovil and one place above Basingstoke. Peterborough came top.
But Mr Liddell-Grainger, who intends to contest the new Tiverton and Minehead constituency for the Conservatives, says no-one should pay any attention to the result.
“This was not a poll in the real sense of the word, just a chance for the usual malcontents to do a bit of bad-mouthing,” he said.
“If they are to be taken at all seriously public opinion polls need to be scientifically, accurately conducted, the questions fairly and correctly framed, and the results analysed according to strict protocols.
“Any exercise such as this which is designed purely and simply to boost readership of a newspaper has no value at all; it merely allows a section of the population with nothing more useful to do with their time to voice their own frustrations.”
Mr Liddell-Grainger said the fact that Wells in Somerset - repeatedly voted one of the best places in the country to live - was ranked only two places behind Tiverton showed just how misleading and pointless the Sun poll was.
“Tiverton has, like most medium sized towns, been through some pretty tough times as a result of the pandemic but it remains a vibrant and attractive community,” he said.
“Did the poll take account of its excellent transport links, the pretty well immediate access to beautiful countryside, or its proximity to one of our finest national parks? No, clearly not.
“Yet these are major pluses for Tiverton and, I would suggest, far outweigh the narrow-minded and bigoted opinions expressed by a handful of local people who clearly derive some pleasure in delivering negative comments about the town that is their home.”
