Anyone from Livingston

scotboy82

Hi All

My job location is possibly changing from London to Edinburgh, one area that looks reasonable (well in todays market!!) in terms of house prices is Livingston. I can get a 3 bed detached for about 170k. Also is only about 25 minutes on train into Edinburgh.

Anyone from Livingston or know what sort of area Livingston is? Particularly the Eliburn area of Livingston as there seems to be a few nice houses there. My wife is expecting, so an area that is good to raise a family is vital.

cheers

ivagoldfish

Loads of housing (including new build) in and around Bathgate - worth a look.

scooterpig

Livingston's okay, it's a fairly average sort of new town, decent transport links and shopping facilities, can't help on family facilities. Easy motorway access for both Glasgow and Edinburgh.

If you're looking for a short train hop to Edinburgh, you could also look at Dunfermline/Dalgety Bay area (across the river in Fife). It's also only 25 mins on the train.

Bean_Counter

scotboy82 wrote: »

Particularly the Eliburn area of Livingston

Hi,

I used to stay in Eliburn until recently. There is still a lot of housing being built and still seems to have a reasonably active housing market with plenty people coming and going. Plenty of families as well, from what I remember.

As a new town it can seem reasonably sterile at times, but as a scooterpig said it has good transport connections. In Eliburn you can easily walk to Livingston North railway station to get to Edinburgh (I used to do that on a daily basis).

We were quite happy in our time in Livingston, so whilst not the best place in the world to live, I am happy to recommend it.

ajb69

Hello,

I moved to Livingston from London about 5 years back - spent about 12 months there with a job, before moving back down Sarf. I lived in Knightsridge, so not too far away from Eliburn.

I have to be honest and say we were glad to move out in the end due to the social problems there - some of the youths were "feral" (or that was how the police described them to us) and we were constantly having to ring 999 after attempted break-ins / vandalism / theft (usually on a Friday night after the pubs shut).

I appreciate this sounds negative and I do want to say that I love Scotland: everyone we got to know up there was so warm and friendly, it was totally unlike London and fantastic to be able to pop to Edinburgh/Stirling/Glasgow etc . We were unlucky and moved into an area which had troubles - it was also 5 years ago now, so I am sure things have changed since then.

North Livingston (which mixes the original 60s concrete social housing estates, or schemes as they are called in Scotland, with newer builds) can be great, but you are generally an island of new-build houses surrounding by social, and it did cause issues, I'm sad to say - the "posh" houses are an easy target. We lived in a new build estate in Knightsridge, and we had quite a bit of trouble from the Knightsridge scheme proper. All of North Livi is riddled with pathways and alleys and - although we looked out onto forest - we constantly had neds jumping into the back-garden from a nearby path, spraying graffitti on the fence and throwing rocks (or on one memorable occassion, a lamp-post) at the windows. I also got quite badly mugged one night when walking home from Livingston North station (10pm-ish): the police said it was quite common, so I'd strongly recommend a car to drive to/from the station if you work unsocial hours.

South Livingston, on the other hand, had the reputation (in 2002/3) of not having any trouble - it was virtually all new houses with no problem families. Dedridge and Murieston areas in South Livingston had a good reputation, IIRC, and South Livingston station also has a quite good service to Edinburgh.

I've probably put you off totally now, and I really don't want to have done that - we had one bad experience out of the tens of thousands of people who live in Livi - and the location, the scenery and the shopping are all great. And I know I said it above, but this was all 5 years ago so probably totally different now.

But, for what's it's worth, here's what I'd say to you:

* the further south you can go, the nicer the area
* do check the local area and see what housing there is - is it all new build or are there any schemes?
* watch out for any pathways behind or near your house/road - where do they go? Ours was between the Knightsridge scheme and the nearest pub...bad idea.
* check for an unusually high proportion of house alarms / house sales (our house and the houses near it were constantly popping onto the market every 18 months or so)

Anyway, I hope you do have a great time up in Scotland - I still think it's a fantastic country - and please let me know if I can help you in any way with your research.

Regards,

Drew

scotboy82

Thanks very much for replies thus far, very helpful
I visited livingston last week and well it seems nice enough, it seems a bit sterile and I do have concerns about neigbouring bad areas.
I also visited Dalgety Bay last week and that seems much more agreeable to me. Again a bit sterile been a new town, but just seemed a bit nicer and next to the sea appealed to me, also just got a better general feel place for the area. So concentrating my efforts on that area for now.
Anyone with knowledge/experience of Dalgety Bay,

Bean_Counter

scotboy82 wrote: »

Anyone with knowledge/experience of Dalgety Bay,

You might be better off starting a new thread on the Scotland board for feedback.

I've not lived there myself, but one thing you need to be sure about is if you are planning to commute to Edinburgh by car over the Forth bridge, be sure that you are aware of potential traffic problems.

Scenic_Route

Don;t know about Dalgety Bay but if LIvi comes back on your radar here is (my opinion) a few places in West Lothian

Kirkton - Edge of Livi, nice enough houses and pleasant enough
West calder (Village outside livi with Train links to EDI and GLA and quite quaint as far as it goes, good local amenities without going into Livi)
Polbeth - Avoid. right beside West Calder but Grim.
Harburn - No easy transport links (i.e you'll need a bike or a car) but beautifully rural. Golf club, horses, sheep, cows and houses and near to West calder.
Murieston - Houses and a few amenites, nice enough
Dedridge - I wouldn't want to live in it.

Good Luck

SR

neverdespairgirl

scotboy82 wrote: »

Anyone from Livingston or know what sort of area Livingston is?

Doctor, I presume?

Best of luck with teh baby!