Considering a move to Newport...

[WhatonearthwasIthinking]

Hi there - would appreciate anyone thoughts on Newport as a place to live please. Thanks.

Isle of Wight or Wales?

This is an important question as the two are... very different 😂

Which one?

There are two in wales, one in Pembrokeshire and the one in south wales.

Newport, Shropshire?

Sorry - Wales! I would love it to be IoW but that's a little too far for us.

South Wales.

As someone who lives here and is desperate to leave, I would say no.
It has some positives - parks, good transport connections to England and the rest of Wales, cheap housing. But the negatives outweigh it. The town is dire, people are not friendly, drug addicts everywhere, the whole place smells of weed. It’s quite rough. Most people hate it here if you ask them. The people who are proud of the place are 9/10 the people who are causing the problems here.

Where do you currently live? Because it does also depend what you are used to.

It’s got a bad reputation. You will find house prices cheaper than Cardiff so some people move out that way for that reason. Do you have children and need schools?

No way. Cardiff would be nice, and it isn't much further.

We live in Cornwall, want to live closer to family.

A move from Cornwall to Newport? Definitely not. It’s a grey bleak place here, believe me.
As others have said Cardiff is much nicer or Cwmbran which is close to Newport and still has cheap housing.

Depends what you need and what you have to spend on a house.

We live in Malpas and it's good overall - nice green spaces few local shops - the secondary school not good though think all the Primarys are okay - but has bus routes into Cwmbran and Cardiff.

The nearby neigbourhood of Bettws really need to avoid.

Bassaleg has a good secondary - I think polutions levels are high there.

The town center in massive decline - tend to shop in Cwmbran and Cardiff.

There little to no city pride - and town center isn't a selling point - though there are many small retail parks dotted around - but the trains run regularly into Cardiff, Bristol and are on regular routes into London.

There are some really bad areas to avoid in the city - but I've live in worse places than Malpas.

Where are your family op?

@BulbousSpring or even Newport in Fife, Scotland!

No schools needed, and we're retired. We'd some open space so not thinking town centre, more the outskirts. Up to 300k to spend.

Bristol, but that's too much of a city for us. An hour away would be fine.

High crime in Newport, South Wales. Don't do it.

Caerleon is nice lot of Roman history we walk out there on good weather days and do pub by river - Rogerstone - all worth a look.

If you don't need schools and can avoid city center - it's just the NHS.

There were problems for us decade ago finding NHS dentist and that's just got worse - and the Welsh NHS doesn't always rate as good as England - though personally not yet had any problems.

Chepstow or Monmouth? My brother lives in Dursley Gloucestershire it has good links to Bristol and is lovely. I don't like Newport really.

It would be a cold day in hell before I moved back to Newport, although some of the outlying areas aren’t quite so bad (Caerleon, Rogerstone). The main local hospital used to be terrible, but it might have improved in the 12 years since I was there last.
The surrounding countryside is gorgeous though - if that’s important for you I‘d recommend Abergavenny or Crickhowell. If good culture is more your thing then get closer to Cardiff.
Some years ago my DM was in ICU so me and a relative were there as much as possible. At some point we needed to eat so casually asked the consultant doing rounds (who had just asked us an inconsequential question so didn’t seem to be pressed for time) if he could recommend a restaurant in Newport - he looked horrified and muttered that he lived in Abergavenny and never spent any time in Newport. That says it all.

It’s fine if you choose the area carefully, somewhere on the outskirts as mentioned up thread is best. There’s a lot of snobbery when people talk about Newport but in my experience are many worse places to live in the uk. Town centre not good but that’s common these days for towns of that size. There is really beautiful countryside as you head up the valleys. Good road and decent rail links. Cheap housing. I haven’t noticed much crime at all and I’ve lived here for 27 years. I’m not at all local and have found everyone friendly.

There's a new hospital in Cwmbran - The Grange University Hospital - though it's had bad press at times - but it where A&E for area is now though Royal Gwent still a local hospital

Chepstow is lovely - Abergavenny is as well though haven't lived just visited.

There are nicer bits of Newport but agree there are some lovely surrounding towns.

It was nessarity that bought us here - DH was commuting daily at time to outskirts of Bristol and house prices here were more in our price range.

Don't. The deprivation is obvious - in lots of ways. It's depressing.

as others have said, town centre can be a bit rough (although not as bad as people make out, it's fine during the day), but lots of perfectly nice places on the outskirts. If family live in Bristol why not look at somewhere like Chepstow?