Walsall ranked 'scroogiest' town in national survey - here's why the locals disagree
Walsall residents have come to the defence of their town after being ranked among the 'scroogiest' towns in the UK – here's what they said.
New research, conducted by the digital headphones magazine Headphonesty, has ranked Walsall as one of the 'scroogiest' towns in the UK, however, locals to the area seem to disagree.
The new research ranked Walsall in the top ten UK areas that listen to the least amount of Christmas songs in the festive period.
The research ranked this year's search volumes of Christmas songs per 100,000 population, with Walsall residents having a monthly search of only 928 songs per month for their population of 284,100.
In light of being called a Christmas Scrooge, we visited Walsall Town Centre to see if locals are feeling at all jolly this Christmas.
Jayne Durnall, 29, of Walsall, said: "I think the list may be a bit skewed to be fair, I pretty much listen to Christmas songs all year. It's never too early.
"We might not listen to so many Christmas songs but I don't think we are the scroogiest town, we have actually done a lot for Christmas this year. The Victoria Arcade looks amazing. We love Christmas."
The research ranked Walsall as number ten on the list among Leicester, Sunderland, Southampton, Ipswich, Croydon, Luton, Salford, Wigan and Sutton.
Daryl Wiggan, 38, of Leamore, said: "We aren't the scroogiest, there's a lot duller places than Walsall, we love Christmas around here.
"I'm constantly playing a bit of a Mariah Carey. Plus the town looks pretty good this year. We didn't used to do much for Christmas but the Victorian Arcade looks amazing.
"I think it's on the up and up, no list can kill our Christmas spirit."
The research comes as Walsall residents criticised the town centre's Christmas tree, which they said looked worse for wear. However, residents have now said recent improvements make the town look jollier than ever.
Richard Speaker, of Brownhills, said: "I think Walsall actually looks good this year. I don't think we are really all Scrooges.
"We may not listen to many Christmas songs I suppose but who does outside of Christmas? The area looks great and that's all that matters really."
