Residents have defended a seaside town after it was ranked as the third saddest place in the UK.

A study by Paranimo looked at a decade's worth of wellbeing data and noticed a large decline in overall wellbeing in Eastbourne over the last ten years.

However, people from the town have disagreed with the finding and defended the area.

People from the town have instead insisted that Brighton should instead hold this title of being one of the UK's saddest places.

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One resident, Daniel Knight, said: "Eastbourne is a much nicer town than Brighton.

"And it has better shops. Prettier sea front.

"And also has a nice sized market. It's got way more than Brighton has."

Sheila Eames agreed and said: "Rubbish, much better than Brighton and cleaner."

Tracey Sutton said: "I thought it was nice and quiet when I last went whereas Brighton was full of drunk people.

"It just needs some shops along there to get people interested to walk along the beach."

Garry Rickett also argued: "Not sad, it's always got lots going on, it's just the litter and graffiti that needs to be made better."

However, not everyone defended the seaside town as some people agreed there has been a decline.

Debs Bonnett said: "Yes totally agree.

"Born, bred and raised in Eastbourne.

"Still live here, definitely has changed."

Tim Baker said: "Left Eastbourne a year ago. Best move I ever made."

The data from the study showed that over the last ten years, the average overall wellbeing score dropped by 9.57 per cent in Eastbourne, compared to the national average overall well-being drop of just 0.34 per cent.

This included a significant decline in satisfaction, worthwhileness, and happiness in the seaside town.