Three Dorset towns make 'best places' list
Three Dorset towns have made it onto the list of the best places to live in the South West. Lyme Regis, Swanage and Sherborne all feature in The Sunday Times Best Places To live supplement.
Lyme Regis is singled out for its community spirit, good shops, services and attractive outdoor spaces.
The supplements assess a wide range of factors, from jobs, exam results and broadband speed to culture, community spirit and local shops in order to compile the definitive top locations to make your home.
The methodology relies on hard data and robust statistics on crime and education, but also on expert knowledge from The Sunday Times judging panel.
The judges combine the numbers with their own experience of the villages, towns and cities, such as local pubs, ease of transport and the range of attractive property to ensure the chosen locations truly are places where readers and their families can thrive.
The Sunday Times Best Places to Live in Britain Part 2 is the second in a two-part series. This weekend it reveals the best places to live in the South West, East, London, Scotland and the North West, as well as the overall best place to live in the UK. Last weekend it revealed the top places in North and North East, Midlands, Northern Ireland, South East and Wales.
Commenting on The Sunday Times Best Places to Live, Home Editor Helen Davies said: "This is the fifth year we have compiled the list, and this year's is even bigger and better - the guide is more personal, more detailed and more comprehensive than ever before. The list weighs up everything from considering the likely impact of the local plan, to whether the post office is still open, the range of housing, and the quality of the coffee.
Numbers on a spreadsheet can only tell us so much, so we carefully balance statistics with our writers' decades of knowledge and expertise to create the definitive list of the best places to live in the UK."