Visiting Croatians think that Tiverton is "a depressing s**thole." The truth hurts...

Croatia is a beautiful country though... I guess Tiverton pales in contrast.

No better or no worse!? Tiverton is pretty awful to be perfectly honest with you. While there are some pretty areas, for the most part Tiverton is extremely outdated, extremely run down and god damn disgusting! The highlight is Tesco for for crying out loud.

Tiverton has no retail, no nightlife, no pretty parks, no train station and a bus service you pay ridiculous amounts of money for! Most people travel to Exeter and Taunton instead of making the most of what the town does have to offer and the biggest reason for that is, it doesn't have much to give!

The parks are full of drunks and junkies. The leisure centre was nice but a big disappointment considering the previous plans for the place. Both football teams are losing hundreds of supporters from the clubs lack of decent management (Tiverton more than Elmore) and a bus service that isn't good by any stretch of the imagination - I have to pay £7.50 in the morning for a return ticket and the bus is usually dirty, damp and falling apart at every corner. The market isn't appealing to anyone under the age of 40 as it's mostly full of junk and the fruit and veg is cheaper (and just as fresh) from a supermarket.

I agree, it's nice to have the cinema back and with word of a renovation on the grapevine, that's good news. The rugby team I can't personally comment on. The societies, I agree are very good here but that's something you can get anywhere.

The surrondings are nice in place but god damn awful in others. The town is dead 9 times out of 10 and the highstreet is suffering from the empty lot virus. While I'm glad that I'm not living in a city like London, Liverpool or Manchester - the amount that other towns, not unlike our own, offer is staggering in comparison. Taunton for example, is a beautiful town with a bustling highstreet, a good transport network and lots to do for all ages.

Westexe Park has two different ways of looking at it, we had a pleasant sunday afternoon there when the town band was playing, but when I went to sit in the shelter, the foul language and beer cans there was an utter disgrace. There is two different worlds at Westexe.

Tiverton is like any other town - you get out what you put it.
Yes, it's quiet; that's one thing l like about it. If your idea of a good time is to stagger out of a nightclub at 3am and vomit in a shop doorway, do it somewhere else!
Yes, joining societies is a middle-aged thing. If you're younger than that, go and live in a big city for 20 years, then come to realise the plus points of a small town. Don't expect the rubbish bits of big city life to come here, thanks.
Yes, Tesco has knocked the stuffing out of the town. What did you expect - this is what they always do. Our wonderful council rolled over and gave them a valuable commercial site for 2 1/2d, and in return any little shops with any individuality can't make a living. You were warned.
Yes, the bus service to Tiverton Parkway is rubbish. Have a look next time you are on the no. 1 and count the passengers. Stagecoach isn't a charity - it's a commercial organisation. When they're having to turn passengers away is the time to shout at them.
Don't forget that Tiverton is a working town and always has been. If you want a middle-class town, try living in Totnes - 5 different places to buy healing crystals, and nowhere to get a pint of milk and a tin of catfood. I know which I prefer.
Anyone who thinks like the Croatians has two choices - go away, or stay and make things better.

You've obviously be going to the wrong places Ally! "If your idea of a good time is to stagger out of a nightclub at 3am and vomit in a shop doorway, do it somewhere else!" That is Tiverton in it's current state. That isn't a nightlife that's a living because half of the pubs here are s**tholes that thrive on the trade like the kind of people you mentioned!

Tesco may have taken some trade from a few smaller businesses but I'm not sure I'd want to do without it. Most of the places that have shutdown weren't that great anyway, there were much better alternatives that are still here! It's not the smaller businesses we need, in order for these smaller businesses to survive there needs to be bigger businesses in the centre of the town. People don't go: "Oh I have an idea, lets pop down to Sara's Dairy, shall we!" Places like SD, that have shut, would of been alright if the town had bigger and better things to offer. The shops that have shut are the type that survive on passing trade but Tiverton rarely has any! And don't complain about them shutting either, it may be shame but if you don't use it, you lose it.

The bus services in general are rubbish. The 1 service is irrelevant as that services Cullumpton and Willand etc...not Tiverton & Exeter, that's where the 55 and 155 routes come in. Which are busy, I've been on buses that have people standing up over the legal limit. Yet while routes that are shorter and less busy than the 55 etc... have nice, new, clean buses we get the **** ones! Stagecoach isn't a charity, your right but it's not a "commercial organization" either. It's selfish, money grabbing business that cares very little about there customers! But they know they will get trade and they know they will get away with offering a poor services as most people have no other choice but to grin and bare it.

And societies isn't a middle age thing, I'm quite young and I'm part of two societies! So please don't make such foolish assumptions.

And is anyone being snobby? Is anyone here of middle class? I doubt it, I certainly ain't! But I don't wish to live in a s**thole neither!

Excuse my french.

It is so easy to complain.  I still think Tiverton is a reasonable place to live in and I am very pleased to be here.

If you just try to be a little objective in your judgments you may come to appreciate what we all have.

Mr Origin doesn't know what he is talking about! I'm not a pub-goer * but places like the Queen's Head and the White Ball seem like perfectly ordinary pubs to me. But you still have to mind where you put your feet on a Friday night. All I was suggesting is that if people want to do that sort of thing, go away. I could give them a short-list of horrible towns that would not be made any worse by the odd pavement pizza.
Sara's Dairy might not have been all that wonderful, but Country Cupboard was distinctive, and that's gone too. Yes I did shop there.
The no. 1 bus service is not irrelevant - you might not have noticed, but it's how you get to the train in 20mins, as opposed to 40mins on the 55. You do the math, as the Yanks say. Stagecoach certainly IS a commercial organisation - yes, they do give the worst service they think they can get away with. Tried using BT lately?
All the societies I belong to have a middle-aged membership, and we all worry about it and wish younger people would join. I was being neither foolish nor making assumptions - I was just using my eyes.
I don't want to live in a dump either - but that's exactly the point I was making. Do try reading what subscribers ACTUALLY say before coming on strong with the invective, please.

(* I prefer art-house films and classical music as it happens, both of which I get in Tiv - but I suppose that makes me middle class?)

Tiverton is not the same, i can remember when you could walk in the town and you would know most people and everyone would speak, not the same ,bring back the good o days, as far a the Croatians or the Polish they have a choice to stay or go back to there own country

The origin likes Taunton? can you really compare a county town to a market town. I would much rather shop in Tiverton for menswear clothes than Taunton. If you want to make the town better, then people have to do something about it, rather than just moan. I like Tiverton and I think speak for the majority that live near or in it!