The Mayor of Ipswich has dismissed a report ranking the town as the UK’s 13th unhappiest place saying his experience is that there are “a lot of happy and content people about”.

The Office of National Statistics asked a sample of 180 people in the town to rate “how happy they were yesterday” on a scale of one to ten.

Although Ipswich clocked a score of 7.26, one of the lowest in the UK, Mayor Roger Fern said this does not fit in with his view of the town.

He said: “Everywhere there are people who are not laughing all the time or happy all the time but certainly in my experience there are a lot of happy and content people about.

“If they did come a few weeks ago and met some Ipswich Town FC fans they may have met some unhappy people.

“But if they were about on Monday they would have met a lot of people with big smiles on their faces.

“I think the sample was far too small and certainly inaccurate view of the town.”