‘it’s a boost to the town’ is a cliched saying, but in the case of Luton Football clubs’ remarkable promotion to the Premier League, it is most apt.

Luton, as a town, gets what can conservatively be described as a bad press. No, I do not live there, but yes, it is nearby to Ellisville, and I have made the visit twice this year, bar the airport, and it is as it always has been: Depressing.

The away supporter entrance at the football ground is indicative of the town. You enter via a gap between a terrace of houses to go up a metal staircase that looks like something frequented from a Victorian country house to enter a ground that, with a capacity of only 10,000, is as miserable and soul destroying as the area that surrounds it.

Despite this welcome footballing fillip to the town, Luton has again been voted (according to ilivehere.co.uk) the worst town in England to live in, beating notable entries such as Bradford (the land of dreams, if those dreams consist of takeaways and pound shops) and Slough (if the world ever deserves an enema, then Slough is undoubtedly where the tube should be inserted).

East London and West Essex Guardian Series: Brett Ellis found Luton 'depressing'Brett Ellis found Luton 'depressing'

The Luton reviews included ‘it makes Slough comparable to the playboy tax exile of Monaco’ and ‘Luton has been lurking around the top 10 like a pervert in a bush for a decade’.

So, what makes Luton so ‘dire’ if that’s what it is: The Daily Mirror recently did an ‘expose’, which is like stating that Mr Tumble presented an Oxford university lecture on biodynamics.

They found that locals, in the main, stated they feel ‘unsafe’, that unemployment is a huge issue in the town, as well as a lack of restaurants, bars and nightclubs and the highest level of homelessness in the East of England.

Lindsey Sweet, chair of ‘Love Luton’ and no doubt someone who has a vested interest in painting a positive picture of the town in lieu of any concrete evidence, claims that Luton is a ‘vibrant, diverse town with award winning parks and fabulous communities who support one another and businesses and companies that are investing in the town’.

Unless those in power wake up and admit there are huge problems, and seek the investment needed to get business back into the town, have an overhaul of the environment in which people live, and build facilities to engage young and old minds alike across differing communities with varying tastes, wants and needs, they are going nowhere.

  • Brett Ellis is a teacher.