Luton tops ugly poll

It has an airport, a car factory and can proudly boast of having invented the boater. Now Luton is famous for one more thing - being the worst place to live in Britain.

The Bedfordshire town with a population of 185,000 was nominated for its ugly architecture and lack of anything to do. It beat off strong challenges from Windsor, Sunderland and Edinburgh in a Top 50 poll.

'To an outsider, there are no attractions for coming here,' said Chris Juraszek, landlord of a pub in Luton. Other rivals included London, Birmingham, Winchester and Cardiff.

But Luton council, which is spending £80million on regeneration, claimed it was 'a thriving town with a vibrant, multicultural society'. The list was voted for by 20,000 people in a new book called Crap Towns II, The Nation Decides.