Barking mad? How people in England’s ‘least friendly’ borough feel about the ranking

Does the description from a study ranking all of England’s 296 boroughs for friendliness ring true for people in the east London town? Alice Fokuo is so friendly with her neighbour that they have exchanged keys to each other’s homes. The level of intimacy is such that “I call her mum, because she cooks for me”. So the market trader was surprised to learn that her borough, Barking and Dagenham, ranked the least friendly in England in a new study drawing on government data from the community li...

By Rachel Hall