You will live longer if your high street has a library and pharmacy

RESIDENTS of towns with high streets full of bookmakers and off-licences tend to die earlier than those in areas with high street libraries and pharmacies, researchers have found.

According to a report by the Royal Society for Public Health, “unhealthy” high streets could be taking up to two and a half years off people’s lives.

The society’s ranking of 70 high streets found those living in the top 10 healthiest areas lived longer than those with the 10 unhealthiest high streets.

Grimsby was named the unhealthiest town, followed by Walsall and Blackpool. Accentuating a largely North-south divide in England excluding London, every “unhealthy” high street was to be found either in the Midlands or in the North, whereas most of the 10 “healthy” ones were located in the South. The report, Health on the High Street: Running on Empty, awarded points for pubs and bars, dentists, opticians, libraries, pharmacies, coffee shops, museums and galleries, and vaping shops.

Points were deducted for betting shops, payday lenders, fast food outlets, off licences, tanning salons and empty shops.

Stoke-on-trent, Sunderland, Northampton, Bolton, Wolverhampton, Huddersfield and Bradford themselves in the bottom 10.

Overall, Scotland’s capital came top in the health stakes. But Edinburgh was followed almost exclusively by southern towns – Canterbury, Taunton, Cheltenham, Brighton & Hove, Eastbourne, Exeter and Cambridge, with York proving the exception. London’s many high streets were ranked separately, with Seven Sisters Road, all found Roman Road West and Thornton Heath coming bottom and Muswell Hill, Hornchurch and Pinner top.

The list was first published in 2015 and was updated this year to reflect the changing face of the British high street.

The report added off-licences and the growing number of empty shops to the list of negative features on a high street, while cafes and vape shops were deemed to have positive influences.