This is a reader's letter from an Abingdon resident published in our paper this week in response to Abingdon and Henley being shortlisted on the list of worst places to live across the country by a satirical national website.

I read your article regarding Abingdon's demise as one of the worst towns in the country, and I can only agree.

I have lived in the town all my life (71 years) and can remember when we had a thriving high street with plenty of shops and businesses, facilities and an abundance of employment.

We had a police station in the town with policemen who retained the ability of being able to walk and the town was clean and tidy.

READ MORE: Abingdon BID looks set to fold after months of unrest

Now we have succumbed to modernisation and the town is rundown and dirty with little to offer unless you need a haircut, tattoo, your nails painted a hideous colour, a charity shop, or one of the ever increasing coffee shops.

At night the town is an unpleasant place and doesn't feel safe.

Oxford Mail: Last winter in Abingdon by Angela Thomas.

It is also congested with taxis whose drivers seem to be above the law parking down the high street on double yellow lines.

If law-abiding citizens like you and I were to park [there] we would be issued with a parking ticket before we could turn the ignition off.

The town councillors should wake up and smell the coffee (there is enough about) or do they all have buckets of sand to bury their heads in?

The only thing they have been successful with in recent years is causing traffic congestion with their ridiculous layout. 

Traffic flowed better the way it was! 

Tony Thouless (Abingdon)