Review dependencies

[rwood-97]

Describe the bug Would be useful to review and streamline dependancies to ensure easy installation but still efficient/effective code.

To do:

• [ ] Make a list of dependencies and describe what each dependancy is for and how essential
• [ ] Use list to think about whether we need to keep/remove any dependancies (e.g. for easier install)

[rwood-97]

As per #364 this should be made priority. In particular to extend support to python 3.12 and remove support for 3.8.