It’s not all bad!

Talking with a lifelong Leiston resident the other day, I was asked why on earth I’d chosen to return to live here. She said she’d regretted not moving away when she was young, and said how poverty and the ‘problem families’ that get placed in social housing made the town very different from the rest of this stretch of coast.

My experience of the town over the past few months has been positive. Yes, it could do with fewer charity shops and more independent traders, but that’s the case everywhere these days. Leiston is an affordable place to live, yet close to affluent communities where I suspect many people are able to find work.

We could not have afforded to convert a barn in Aldeburgh, even if one had been there to buy. Yet our new home will overlook fields and be a 10 minute walk from doctor, dentist, supermarket, restaurants and even a cinema. There’s even a bus stop at the bottom of our road, with regular services to Aldeburgh and Ipswich and the railways station at Saxmundham.

Perhaps some people here have never seen real inner city deprivation, or choose to define Leiston by what it is not, while overlooking its unique industrial heritage and history. Some here I know are working to build community enterprises, that can build pride in the place. Leiston can only get better!