Green hills, Life does
IS
WITH lochs, reservoirs and views of the Campsie hills, locals already know Kirkintilloch, Bishopbriggs, Bearsden and Milngavie are great places to call home.
Now it’s been confirmed. A survey for the BBC has shown that East Dunbartonshire is the best place in Great Britain to be a woman.
And on the other side of Glasgow, East Renfrewshire comes in at No2.
West Oxfordshire, at No3, is the first place in England to make the list. Four of the worst spots for women are in London. None is in Scotland.
The National Centre for Social Research looked at all 380 local authority areas across Great Britain. They measured eight factors that make up quality of life for women – income, housing affordability, personal wellbeing, safety, education, life expectancy, environment and culture.
The results of the survey will be unveiled live on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour today. Tomorrow, the show will come live from East Dunbartonshire, with residents explaining what’s so great about living there.
Women’s Hour editor Karen Dalziel said: “This analysis has given us a powerful tool to understand the factors affecting the quality of a woman’s life in Great Britain. How important are low house prices, good schools and availability of jobs?
“Can access to green fields or cinemas compensate for high crime rates? Or is having family and friends nearby what women value most? We’ll now investigate to what extent our selected key indicators have shaped women’s choices about where they live.”
We went to Bearsden, the commuter town in East Dunbartonshire, to find out why it’s so female-friendly.
Look around the centre on a weekday and there’s barely a Y chromosome in sight. Most of the shoppers, coffee drinkers, dog walkers and cyclists are women. Coffee shops offer gluten-free carrot cake or the scone of the day. There’s not a spit-in-the-sawdust pub or betting shop to be seen.
The most common accessories are an M&S carrier bag, pram or walking stick.
The peace and quiet swung it for psychic Beti Shulz. She won the lottery in 2012, left her flat in Glasgow’s Crow Road and bought a detached property on the edges of Bearsden.
The 75-year-old says that, if your wild party days are over, then the tree-lined