A Shropshire town which was named as the most car-friendly in the UK two years in a row has fallen to the third best in the country, it was revealed today.

Telford, which held the crown in 2008 and 2009 when it was voted as being best in the country for car parks, dropped to second last year. But today it was announced the town has this year fallen to third in the annual most car friendly towns awards.

North West rivals St Helens regained the title beating West Bromwich to top the chart.

The table, which features the 65 most populated towns across the UK, was compiled on the basis of a number of criteria including cost of petrol, parking charges and vehicle crime.

The Virgin Money car insurance report showed that Slough, along with cities Cardiff and Manchester, had some of the highest level of vehicle crime, contributing to their poor placing in the bottom10 of this year’s charts.

Grant Bather, of Virgin Money, said: “The cost of petrol has risen by almost 20 per cent over the past year due to VAT and fuel duty increases.

“Combined with the constant issue of parking problems, speeding tickets and vehicle crime, UK drivers can be forgiven for feeling as though they need to steer clear of urban areas.

“However, not all towns and cities are the same and many local authorities do their best to ensure drivers aren’t treated like second-class citizens.

“Clearly cars shouldn’t rule the road, but motorists’ views certainly need to be taken into consideration and St Helens has successfully done this.

At the bottom of the table, Oxford was last-but-one in 64th place, with Cardiff 63rd and Nottingham equal 61st with Slough.

London, which has occupied the bottom spot for the last three years thanks to its 600 speed cameras, moved up to 58th spot.

Telford was also named as being one of the three worst places in the country for roads scarred with potholes following a survey which was carried out by the AA this year.

Nearly 2,000 members of AA took part in its survey.