The air is clean and fresh crime levels are low and there is an easy-going tolerance to the region
The air is clean and fresh, crime levels are low and there is an easy-going tolerance to the region."The South-east is a more money-focused world. While not having money creates problems, having money itself generates worries about losing it, what to do about it, how to look after it."More than 2,500 people were asked questions on happiness, home life, work life, stress levels and work-life balance.All agreed that access to open spaces and the countryside was the most important factor to personal well-being.The West Midlands scored the highest for levels of happiness at work and the lowest levels of stress. But the work-life balance rated poorly.The South-east appears bottom of the index largely due to low scores for happiness at home, happiness at work and for having the highest stress levels.London, which has the highest income per head in the UK, occupied a mid-table position for well-being.David Lewis, a psychologist, said: "The study shows the symbiotic relationship between happiness and work-life balance in ensuring a high level of well-being. Both must be present to a reasonable degree for someone to feel in control of their life. And it is only by being in control that stress levels can be kept low and the sense of well-being maintained.". As examples of yobbish behaviour go, few demand a more urgent Asbo or dispersal order than that currently facing a troublesome group in Nantgwynant, in the Snowdonia National Park.
The groups wreaking havoc in the North Wales village are damaging property, vandalising gardens and, according to some passing motorists, playing "chicken" with passing cars before running off. Much to the chagrin of the local constabulary, however, the local magistrates' court is powerless to act. The marauders at Nantgwynant, a campers' paradise near Beddgelert, are wild goats whose numbers (300, judging from a recent National Trust head-count on the local slopes) give the village the dubious distinction of possessing the densest wild goat population per hectare in the UK. Up to three generations of the animals surround the village and it is thought the mild winters have allowed the herd to increase in numbers.Such is the extent of the damage they have caused - manicured lawns have been destroyed and valuable shrubs violated - that the National Trust now concedes it is considering using marksmen to reduce numbers. "With the warm weather, the goats have returned to the slopes to graze on heather and grass," a spokeswoman said. "A group of bodies [is] discussing the problem at the moment and no final decision has been reached. There are a number of options."Shooting the goats would be an acceptable option for Anne Evans, 83, who has lived in the area for seven decades.
"Last summer, they didn't go back to the slopes because there is more food down here now the authorities have got rid of all the sheep," she said."They come down with their mothers when they are young and from then on they know where to go. There used to be a group of about 20 that would hang around the road, which is very dangerous because there are quite a few motorbike riders who come here every weekend."They cross the road, going in front of cars like they just don't care. They eat everything, like shrubs and flowers, and come early in the morning. You can try to shoo them away and some will go, but others will just ignore you because they have got used to people."Wild goats have roamed the mountains of Snowdonia for hundreds of years - and, in the case of some breeds, several thousand years. But a notable - and fearsome - feature of those currently causing problems is their three-foot horns."A lot of work has been going on to research the goat population," the National Trust spokeswoman added. "We're expecting a report and it is likely some culling will take place."The National Trust concedes that this is "a very controversial subject".
It is currently consulting with the British Feral Goat Society, which is said to be supportive, and other groups. The Snowdonia National Park ecologist Rod Gritten said: "We are under a lot of pressure from locals to try to do something. We have a constant stream of petitions and letters complaining about the destruction.". Labour rates of up to £170 an hour are charged by some garages for car servicing, a survey of more than 3,000 establishments found. The site had a social club, where all the caravanners would gather and talk about caravan stuff It was like watching paint dry.
Then there was Harold, who used wet the bed we were forced to share, which used to get me very angry.Franco and Gilda had this beautiful little dark-eyed daughter called Jo, and even at that age, I would rather have been spending time with her than with awful Harold. Max Clifford, PR guru It must have been in the 1950s, when I was about 11 or 12. My parents, who didn't have much money, used to send me off with a cousin, called Harold, to stay with Uncle Franco, who was Italian, and his wife, Auntie Gilda, who I think was a Romany of some kind; they weren't relatives, just friends of my parents. They owned a caravan on a site near Hastings, where they would go and stay for weekends and holidays. I was the youngest of four, my older siblings were somewhere else and my parents just wanted to pack me off.They were a lovely couple and I don't think I appreciated their kindness As a young boy, it didn't appeal to me at all. As soon as they get here they just run straight for the caravan and practically live in it It's decked out with paper lanterns and bunting.