WE asked readers for their views - good and bad - on Stroud after it was named the best place to live in Britain by The Sunday Times.

Judges assessed places on a wide range of factors, from schools, air quality, transport and broadband speeds to culture, green spaces and the health of the high street.

We have divided the responses, which were posted on Facebook, into sections, some are lighthearted but we have included them!

Add your thoughts on the SNJ Facebook page.

 

Positives

Moved here three years ago and just love it

Stroud is the best place to live

Well deserved. I have spent many a happy Saturday stuffing my face with food in Stroud

The place of my birth, I left Stroud in 1976 but upon my death I want my ashes scattered in fields at Rodborough

Best things are Stroud Brewery, or the Woolpack, the canal, Winstone's ice cream, or maybe the commons. Improvement - Tricorn, long, long overdue

Lovely quirky and weird people

Well I'm proud to live here and everywhere has its good and bad points. Stroud is a unique, friendly and caring community on the whole with great individual shops (when they can open) and amazing walks everywhere

 

General comments and issues which need addressing

Too many cars - we need a car free town centre, safer crossings for pedestrians, no pavement parking, segregated safe cycle routes and also ban sale of meat and fish for the sake of animals, the environment and health

We need shops that are affordable. There used to be lots of shops everyone could buy from, now they’re slowly going

Homeless people, foodbanks, furniture banks, empty shops and crackheads

Sort out the traffic

Lots of druggies

Restoring funding for youth projects and groups. There's so many comments about antisocial or destructive behaviour but not enough places for our youngsters

Make parking free to reinvigorate the town centre

It could do with a good steam clean

Never a big fan, too many hippies/druggies for my liking

If this is the best, what does it say for the rest of the country!

Best place to live during a global pandemic maybe but on a normal functioning day there aren't enough jobs and there are too many coffee shops and the smell of weed is everywhere

The surrounding countryside is very beautiful but the town leaves a lot to be desired. Many brownfield sites are derelict but we are still filling our green fields with unaffordable housing for wealthy people from other areas. Examples include Chalford/Eastcombe/Minchinhampton not to mention the enormous estate on farmland near Eastington!

I was born and bred in Stroud, it was at it’s best in the 1960s, lots of interesting shops and cafes. Sad that things have changed, too many protesters who think they know it all

Obviously haven't walked past the public toilets in town centre then!

More tolerance for young people, more understanding that it isn't great for everyone, fit for purpose joined up public transport, place based not service driven and community-led hubs, public assets restored to community ownership

We need somewhere to drink and dance past midnight

Needs a pleasant accessible warm pool - hydrotherapy

Demolish Tricorn House and do ANYTHING with it. Also get the failed Wallbridge development back in place. Other than that, it's a great town and we should be proud to be number one

Bring back Charcoal Grill, get rid of the potholes. Sound!

A stairlift up the hill to the Prince Albert would be great!

Specific issues

 

Tricorn House

I've been living here since 2003 and it's still standing, get rid of it, Elton must be proud!

Tricorn House must go - it would be so nice to have a signposted route from the M5 to Stroud town centre, that was welcoming to visitors

It’s a absolute disgrace that Tricorn House is still standing, how many more years will it be before someone does something with it.

They got rid of the block party but kept Tricorn House

Tricorn House is such an awful eyesore, everyone agrees, so why not just knock it down

House prices

House prices will be going up even more now

Housing needs to be more available with higher priority given to those who are from Stroud rather than bumping up prices for sale or rent just because it's a trendy place to live for higher society and 'out of towners'

Now I’ll never be able to afford to move back

Soaring house prices to come

Desperately need accessible housing for people with disabilities

Transport

We need a better railway connection to Bristol

Cycle lanes and less traffic

Free car parking in car parks so people don't go elsewhere to shop or cruise round trying to find one of the few roadside spaces

Potholes

They are atrocious