Cambridgeshire

smokey172

I live in St Ives and think it is a great town. I used to work in Cambridge city centre but because of no parking I had to use public transport. On a good day on the bus it would take 45mins door to door most days would take an hour. when it snowed it took 6hrs lol
after 3 years I got fed of the travel & now work in Cambourne only 15mins by car. Have to say though 6months on I so miss working in the buzz of Cambridge

Anyone see the top 10 best & worst places to live in Uk 2006, think south cambs came out as 5th top

Pinklepurr

I agree that at peak times traffic on the A428 to Cambridge from Cambourne are a nightmare but road improvements are well underway and will be complete this year. Cambourne IS expensive but in some respects you are buying into a lifestyle. There are loads of cycle paths, playgrounds for the kids and within a few minutes walk of most houses you can be walking in the open countryside. Lots of local clubs going on for young and old alike. You can pop to the shops and usually bump into someone you know so a good community feel. I think it is a place that people either like or they don't so it won't be to everyone's taste.

lotto-dreamer

Have you thought of East Northants/Cambridgeshire border - lovely little villages and market towns, rural but not too far away from cinemas, restaurants, good pubs etc (Oundle, Warmington, Fotheringhay) all within approx 20 mins drive to centre of Peterborough (not talking rush hour traffic though!). From Peterborough station train to London takes less than an hour. Also, a drive to the centre of Cambridge is usually under an hour.

barnaby-bear

Pinklepurr wrote:

I agree that at peak times traffic on the A428 to Cambridge from Cambourne are a nightmare but road improvements are well underway and will be complete this year. Cambourne IS expensive but in some respects you are buying into a lifestyle. There are loads of cycle paths, playgrounds for the kids and within a few minutes walk of most houses you can be walking in the open countryside. Lots of local clubs going on for young and old alike. You can pop to the shops and usually bump into someone you know so a good community feel. I think it is a place that people either like or they don't so it won't be to everyone's taste.

Bit confused, I've lived in Cambridge for 10 years and Cambourne's an overflow new village where you get more for your money but infrastructure ropey and it's 40% Housing association and getting a lot of ASBO-type, sink estate like problems, lots of hoodies, lots of single mums with no dads and loads of kids, chavs etc hanging around and it can be 40min+ into Cambridge because the road's so conjested.
Cambourne has big social problems brewing so one to avoid especially if you are fussy about who your kids mix with.
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2006/10/14/6a3fae9f-634e-461a-be6d-dd5b152c7b43.lpf
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2006/10/12/46247ab8-c857-4974-9849-24da7dacaf66.lpf
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2006/10/18/61acb1bf-d387-459a-8c8f-1fd67a74bf9b.lpf

Bear in mind this is a large village (3000 homes only)
Ely far better facilities and less problems.

auditbabe

Ely is lovely I love shopping there and it has a nice market. I live in Norfolk which is lovely as well

katmal

Hi Jeewhizz. I've lived in Cambridgeshire all my life moved to a village called Fenstanton next to St. Ives 6 years ago and love the area/the people we have an excellent bus service here as well as small village shop, butchers, greengrocers fab bakery, hairdressers, P.O. barbers, Dr's & 3 Pubs oh yes a Thai restaurant and a great chippy! B & SIL live in Godmanchester and are extremely happy there also have all the shops I mentioned plus a few more besides. Lots of little independent shops in St. Ives and Huntingdon plus the usual supermarkets, next, woolies boots etc. I think you'll find the house prices and the people very welcoming around the St. Ives to Huntingdon corridor. 20-25 mins from Peterborough or Cambridge for shopping, theatre, cinema etc if you want the bigger shops although we rarely find the need these days to venture much further than Huntingdon!!
Happy house hunting :-)

deadparrot

barnaby-bear wrote:

Bit confused, I've lived in Cambridge for 10 years and Cambourne's an overflow new village where you get more for your money but infrastructure ropey and it's 40% Housing association and getting a lot of ASBO-type, sink estate like problems, lots of hoodies, lots of single mums with no dads and loads of kids, chavs etc hanging around and it can be 40min+ into Cambridge because the road's so conjested.
Cambourne has big social problems brewing so one to avoid especially if you are fussy about who your kids mix with.
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2006/10/14/6a3fae9f-634e-461a-be6d-dd5b152c7b43.lpf
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2006/10/12/46247ab8-c857-4974-9849-24da7dacaf66.lpf
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2006/10/18/61acb1bf-d387-459a-8c8f-1fd67a74bf9b.lpf

Bear in mind this is a large village (3000 homes only)
Ely far better facilities and less problems.

Should mention, last summer Cambourne attracted a lot of youths from neighbouring villages, including Bar Hill, where new anti-drinking by-laws have been introduced.

There were also a small number of *problem families* who have now been evicted, one of these families was responsible for over 50% of crime here, and the weekly police helicoper visits appear to have stopped.

Sounds like a war zone, but then I've been here 4 years and not experinced first hand a single anti-social behaviour incident.

As for the social housing, 48 SO houses have just been sold to police/nurses/firemen and some friends etc so less of the HA ASBO type stereotyping please.

Pinklepurr

barnaby-bear wrote:

Bit confused, I've lived in Cambridge for 10 years and Cambourne's an overflow new village where you get more for your money but infrastructure ropey and it's 40% Housing association and getting a lot of ASBO-type, sink estate like problems, lots of hoodies, lots of single mums with no dads and loads of kids, chavs etc hanging around and it can be 40min+ into Cambridge because the road's so conjested.
Cambourne has big social problems brewing so one to avoid especially if you are fussy about who your kids mix with.
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2006/10/14/6a3fae9f-634e-461a-be6d-dd5b152c7b43.lpf
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2006/10/12/46247ab8-c857-4974-9849-24da7dacaf66.lpf
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/city/2006/10/18/61acb1bf-d387-459a-8c8f-1fd67a74bf9b.lpf

Bear in mind this is a large village (3000 homes only)
Ely far better facilities and less problems.

I have to disagree, and I know as I live in Cambourne. There have been incidents of anti-social behaviour but it has been dealt with quickly and effectively. There are not "lots" of single mums or "chavs". The vast majority of residents are decent families who work hard to give their children a good upbringing. I'm not saying it's perfect, but where is?

barnaby-bear

Pinklepurr wrote:

I have to disagree, and I know as I live in Cambourne. There have been incidents of anti-social behaviour but it has been dealt with quickly and effectively. There are not "lots" of single mums or "chavs". The vast majority of residents are decent families who work hard to give their children a good upbringing. I'm not saying it's perfect, but where is?

We've got quite a few friends there tempted by the cheap house prices and having been there quite a lot, we always leave thinking nice well built houses but thank heavens we weren't tempted. There isn't much for the youth to do or a variety of local work and be-hooded chavs seem ubiquitous. Somewhere like Ely/Soham/Sawston/Newmarket much better bet since equally cheap but more established facilties etc. There's a Morrison's supermarket and nicking the trolleys is about the most aspirational thing the average 15 year old in Cambourne does.

It's also where SCambs council is planning to dump their quota of new builds so isn't going to grow organically, more pseudo-sink estates.
This is a *village* and they had to have the county police helicopter allocated every weekend over the summer to deal with the youth.

deadparrot

barnaby-bear wrote:

It's also where SCambs council is planning to dump their quota of new builds so isn't going to grow organically, more pseudo-sink estates.
This is a *village* and they had to have the county police helicopter allocated every weekend over the summer to deal with the youth.

the Helicopter was caused by one (now evicted) Family, relocated to suffolk I heard, maybe Newmarket, seen any police helicopters lately?

Soham and Ely are also filling with new builds, and guess what? those dreaded HA are there too.


Northstow is the big new dumping ground, 7000 more houses just of the A14. This won't exactly help existing A14 commuters.

another 3 thousand near cambridge airport planned, and another thousand or so off Histon Road again nr A14.