UK town that's one of the 'worst' with no supermarket - now being transformed

Kirkby town centre back in 2019. (Image: Liverpool Echo)A town once dubbed the “worst shopping destination” in Britain is finally starting to turn things around. Kirkby in Merseyside is just six miles from Liverpool and was voted the worst place to shop in 2019. For more than 40 years, it didn’t have a proper supermarket after Asda closed its doors in 1979. It was a town long associated with decline, vandalism, and broken regeneration promises.But that wasn’t always the case. In the 1950s, Kirkby experienced a rapid population boom as Liverpool City Council relocated families from overcrowded inner-city housing. The population jumped from just 3,000 in 1951 to over 52,000 a decade later, with nearly half under the age of 15, according to The Telegraph. But despite early hopes, Kirkby soon began to struggle. Factory closures in the 1970s and 1980s saw unemployment soar to 22.6% by 1981, and crime rates were among the highest in the country. Several housing blocks were also demolished wi...