Good areas within commuting distance to London?

daisiegg

Ellejmorgan wrote: »

To make a reasonable comparison you would have needed to attend every single school in Harlow..
My 6 year old has just been assessed to having a reading age of 9.5, so the schools can't be that bad can they...

Harlow is a good place...
Like anywhere it has it's good and bad areas...

Unlike some of you I do actually live here so I do know what i'm talking about...

I do agree with the town center comment though we do need better shops, then again I love shopping in Leeds...

Well, not necessarily (to the attending every school comment) - there are other ways to know about the quality of schools (including reading Ofsted reports...)

However, I have been to every secondary school in Harlow (not as a pupil). I did attend two primary schools in Harlow as a pupil. I teach sixth form pupils who come to us from Harlow schools. I live very near Harlow (as you may have guessed!) and I grew up there. I know it fairly well...

I also love shopping in Leeds! I try to avoid Harlow town centre as much as possible. If I need to do any real shopping I'll tend to go to Cambridge instead.

asandwhen

Dont rule out St Albans if you need to get to Euston easily. Trains from St Albans to St Pancras take about 20 mins. You can walk from St Pancras to Euston in about 5 mins - Its on the same road.

alwaysskint96

pinkteapot wrote: »

Yep - mum lives in Chelmsford and her 3-bed link-detached is worth the same as our 4-bed detached in Colchester. We're a 15 minute walk from Colchester station; she's a 25 minute walk from Chelmsford station.

However, Chelmsford is 30 minutes from London Liverpool Street and Colchester 65 minutes. Chelmsford is therefore wildly more popular with commuters and so has significantly higher house prices.

I don't think there's anything to choose between Chelmsford and Colchester in terms of 'niceness'. Both have some iffy estates (what town doesn't?). Comparing Colchester to Harlow is a bit harsh!

Lots of nice villages around both towns but if OP wants to be accessible to the West Coast then Essex isn't for him/her. The one thing I hate about Essex is being so out on a limb. We spend most of our holidays in the Lake District and it's a bit of a faff from over here. If work didn't tie us to this area I'd be somewhere like Derbyshire - within a 3 hour driving radius you can reach much of England.

Now I dislike Clelmsford with a passion, but can recommend my home town Billericay- 35 mins from Liverpool St

Oh and Colchester about a million times better than Harlow- or Basildon

lambourne

If you only need to be in London about 6 days a month why not stay where you are and stay with someone in London through airbnb.com or mondaytofriday.com or in a hotel when in town - that way you don't need to move and it would appear that you are not short of money if you can afford a detached house in St Albans so this should suit.

Tropez

lambourne wrote: »

If you only need to be in London about 6 days a month why not stay where you are and stay with someone in London through airbnb.com or mondaytofriday.com or in a hotel when in town - that way you don't need to move and it would appear that you are not short of money if you can afford a detached house in St Albans so this should suit.

Sometimes I am required to be at the offices on short notice which is why the company wants people living within a reasonable distance. Even if the company were to allow me to remain where I am (which is unlikely) it would pretty much ruin any career advancement prospects for the future as well.

Debt_Free_Chick

Tropez wrote: »

Sometimes I am required to be at the offices on short notice which is why the company wants people living within a reasonable distance.

LOL - the company is in cloud-cuckoo land as living "within a reasonable distance" of a Central London office is no guarantee that you can get in to the office quickly. Very often, a longer distance journey on mainline trains is far quicker than the local transport options (bus, tube) when "it all goes wrong"

But I appreciate that you have to "play the game here"

Even if the company were to allow me to remain where I am (which is unlikely) it would pretty much ruin any career advancement prospects for the future as well.

And that's the killer. Although, I wonder how the Company views those who choose to move further out of London, having already attained "God-like" status?

Although I live in the SE, my commute in to Central London (Canary Wharf, The City or West End) is pretty much 2 hours, door-to-door and I've done that daily for 10 years. Plenty do it from this area and from further down the (train) line too.

I wonder if it would help for you to discuss this with the powers that be so you can get some parameters around what is acceptable. Commuting in from Essex on the Central Line, for example, is a complete nightmare. You might as well stay where you are :rotfl:

Tropez

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

LOL - the company is in cloud-cuckoo land as living "within a reasonable distance" of a Central London office is no guarantee that you can get in to the office quickly. Very often, a longer distance journey on mainline trains is far quicker than the local transport options (bus, tube) when "it all goes wrong"

But I appreciate that you have to "play the game here"

Well they're reasonably accepting of issues that occur that are beyond an employees control as everyone knows that London and the UK in general don't exactly have the greatest public transport record in the world. One of the reasons the company prefers the Eurostar is due to the above 90% on-time record of Eurostar compared to flights which hover around the 75% mark. Not sure how it is at City, Stansted and Gatwick but I know at Heathrow departing flights can take off as little as 45 seconds apart so if a carrier misses a slot then it can be quite a wait if every other carrier is running on time. I have to say, I have never flown on time out of Heathrow.

Quite a lot of effort and resources are spent monitoring transportation options and I do wonder whether this relocation idea might get canned once they consider the logistical implications of it all - but better prepared than not.

And that's the killer. Although, I wonder how the Company views those who choose to move further out of London, having already attained "God-like" status?

They're not fond unless they can attach you to another office but then that depends on whether the job can be relocated and actually what job you do. If you work from the office and there's no potential for you being required to attend out of hours on short notice then generally speaking providing you are at work on time (for the most part) then they don't take an issue. If you move out of the area and are consistently late they will have a problem with it.

Being a home worker (for the most part anyway) but also working a job that may, on occasion, require me to get into the office on short notice I don't quite have the luxury of being able to live too far away.

Although I live in the SE, my commute in to Central London (Canary Wharf, The City or West End) is pretty much 2 hours, door-to-door and I've done that daily for 10 years. Plenty do it from this area and from further down the (train) line too.

I wonder if it would help for you to discuss this with the powers that be so you can get some parameters around what is acceptable. Commuting in from Essex on the Central Line, for example, is a complete nightmare. You might as well stay where you are :rotfl:

We have a meeting coming up in a few weeks which I'm required to attend and I assume this issue will be brought up then. If not, I shall have to poke around a bit for some information. Usually these meetings are a colossal waste of my time but maybe this one will actually serve a purpose!

flea72

Ellejmorgan wrote: »

I'm not going to argue the point any further, I already know the answer....

in other words, you dont want to look at any of the stats posted, because you know better than land registry?

ok, lets compare similar places/properties. 2 bed flats in highwoods and melbourne. both estates predominately built in the 80s-90s, similar commute into town centre and access to A12. £110 in colchester, £150 in chelmsford

welshwood park is a complete anomaly for prices in that area. similar to comparing oxford and collingwood road in lexden. as for roach vale, lol. CA catchment nuff said.

F

shirlgirl2004

flea72 wrote: »

Braintree and Colchester are cheaper than Chelmsford because the commute to London is longer, not because they are rougher.

F

If you say so, although the statistics will tell you they do have more crime. I wouldn't live in either Braintree or Colchester.

There are too many squadies in Colchester. The one night I went out in Colchester I saw someone absolutely covered in blood. Maybe he had fallen and bumped his head but it didn't look like it and I've never seen it in Chelmsford and just for the record I don't live in Chelmsford. Doesn't Colchester have that lovely booze bus where the drunks can go to, get patched up and then continue drinking?

flea72

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

There are too many squadies in Colchester. The one night I went out in Colchester I saw someone absolutely covered in blood. Maybe he had fallen and bumped his head but it didn't look like it and I've never seen it in Chelmsford and just for the record I don't live in Chelmsford. Doesn't Colchester have that lovely booze bus where the drunks can go to, get patched up and then continue drinking?

someone was covered in blood, you didnt see it happen, but it must have been a fight with a squadie. huh? You are quite deluded if you think chelmsford is safe just because you havent encountered anything. Crime statistics for both places are fairly even, even though colchester has a larger population

funnily enough the only time ive been set about, was in a club in chelmsford. Was out with OH and another couple and some girly just lumps me for no reason. Obviously thought i was bringing the tone down, since i was over 40 and dressed like a Boden advert lol

Personally i think the SOS bus is a credit to the town. having somewhere people can go with minor injuries and be treated rather than clogging up A&E. or access to transport to get people home safely is surely a good thing.

F