Good areas within commuting distance to London?

shirlgirl2004

flea72 wrote: »

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

Chelmsford had 120,000 population in 2001 census Colchester 104,390. 120,000 is the bigger number and therefore Chelmsford has the bigger population. The crime stats are greater for Colchester. You may not want to believe it but it's true.eg

2010-2011
Violence against the person
Colchester 2,355
Chelmsford 1,945
Common assault
Colchester 706
Chelmsford 553

I'm not sure how these figures are made up but they speak for themselves. Taken from the Office for National Statistics

For the record I lived in/near Chelmsford for years and so have been out many times into the pubs/clubs. Colchester well I lived in Lexden for a few months, that was enough for me.

tasha-debt

I travel in from Broxbourne station (in Hertfordshire), takes around 30 minutes to London Liverpool street, trains are very frequent.

I live about a 5 minute drive from the staion (in Essex) and I am surrounded by the Lea Valley which is great for walking our dog. Its the feel of the country but very easily linked to London.

Lunar_Eclipse

Ellejmorgan wrote: »

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.....

I don't know the schools and wouldn't put much weight behind a reading age, but working with your analogy, it's all relative anyway.

What if your child really should have achieved a reading age of 12, but his school is holding him/her back and/or focussing on kids who can't even read yet? In that scenario, I wouldn't rate the school highly at all (not that you'd know though!)

peachyprice

tasha-debt wrote: »

I travel in from Broxbourne station (in Hertfordshire), takes around 30 minutes to London Liverpool street, trains are very frequent.

I live about a 5 minute drive from the staion (in Essex) and I am surrounded by the Lea Valley which is great for walking our dog. Its the feel of the country but very easily linked to London.

Broxborne is nice

zagubov

Hi Tropez

Used to live in the "South Midlands" and would recommend not too far from MK (maybe Bedford too). Explore it and see what you make of it.

In some way it looks more like an American city (except for crime) than a British one and has great train connections to London and the north-east. I'll clarify that - it looks spacious , has loads of roads and a grid system and endless parking spaces, everything's been on cable for donkey's years. There's a giant shopping mall in the middle. Some bits like Bletchley and Newport Pagnell are more like English towns.

Good houses and shopping. Dunno about night-life but London and Birmingham both accessible. Lots of nice country pubs, but smart restaurants - not so sure.

Anyway, do check them out.:beer: