'Country was like open prison'

Rory Clements and his young family joined the exodus from London in search of a better life - but after six months in West Sussex, they were back in Battersea.

"It was muddy, deadly dull, clogged with traffic, expensive and fit only for horsey types," said Mr Clements. "It was like a term in an open prison." The drudgery and expense of long-distance commuting, plus the limits of life in Haywards Heath quickly convinced him and wife Naomi to move back with children George, four, and three-year-old Madeleine.

"We had a narrow escape from rural hell and I've never been happier," said Mr Clements, a journalist. Their move out of London brought "suburbia without the convenience". Even buying a bottle of milk or posting a letter involved a car journey.

They missed theatres, galleries, restaurants and shops and say the best Haywards Heath had to offer was Pizza Express and WH Smith. Vast tracts of West Sussex were dead zones for mobile phone or digital radio signals and had no broadband internet. Mr Clements now gets to work on his scooter, on 40p of petrol a day, in 20 minutes - saving 14 hours a week. In West Sussex, parking at the station cost ?5 a day, before the ?2,800 for his rail season ticket to Victoria. And the house they rented cost as much as it would have in London.

"If you think you can avoid drugs and crime in the country, you're deluding yourself," said Mr Clements. "We thought it would be better for the children, but they were unlikely to be happy if we weren't. They may grow up with polluted city air in their lungs, but at least they won't get crop-sprayed."