To leave London (burbs) to live in Exeter

[Tinywavesandripples]

I have worked in admin at various universities in London for the last ten years and am increasingly fed up with living in the great big smoke. I have only been to exeter once and loved it. Am I bu to consider selling up, taking dc out of her very good infant school and starting over in Exeter? It appeals to me as it's a university town and close to the Sea. Would it be a culture shock?

Go on, tell me the good, the bad and the ugly!

Tiny I suspect we aren't the majority, we just probably do the same sort of things and thus meet each other! Or maybe we are inexorably drawn together by some kind of psychic force Or maybe - and this is a bit :( - we are the only ones who can afford to buy here, so we sell up at home, move here and buy, while the local people have to move away - maybe for a few years, not forever - to forge a career. I do know several youngish people (younger than me anyway) who moved away but then came back.

The RD&E is a better hospital than some and probably not so good as others. It's not remarkable either way. It's a teaching hospital - we have the peninsular medical school here - so in that way patients benefit. There used to be a shortage of NHS dentists but that got sorted out. I already mentioned that Exeter spends more per capita on the arts than practically everywhere else on the UK (let's draw a veil over the fact that it's still pitifully little). Trains - crap. Buses - crap. Rubbish collection - fortnightly. :( Has been for years and years. Potholes - yes. Loads. Can't think of anything else - actually, no, public spaces - VERY good. Some really nice parks. Also, historic buildings, ruins etc. Fire service - we still have a fire station. We have ambulances, an air ambulance, a police helicopter. We have Swans. We also have Swan poo.

We never have any problem getting a GP appointment either. I don't know if our GP is just bloody marvellous or if it's just that here the services aren't under the strain they are in some places.

IT

Brand new huge library,rural libraries are having their hours and staff cut but the new Exeter library is fab,very well stocked.

I ring friends in East Devon just to dribble over tales of their fast medical appointments and civilised schools Tiny. Particularly if a member of the family has a disability, SN or long term issue, things seem to be MUCH better there.

My DS had a tonsillectomy in a matter of months,his twin got referred to the allergy consultant in a matter of weeks,got pinprick tested for everything with results the same day!Dd had a small plastic surgery op very quickly,I asked for a gyny consultant referral and got it immediately.My parents are retired and I'm very pleased with the various things they get.It's streaks better than Dp's parents get in Surrey which is shockingly bad.My parents seem to get screened for everything because of their age,Dp's have had nothing which is why dmil's cancer went undetected.You get doc appointments mostly on the day you ring,if you wasn't somebody specific and you can wait it's never longer than a week.

We've had to wait 3 months for an orthodontist referral. But on the other hand, DD1 was in hospital as an emergency last week and they couldn't have been more brilliant - she has been having hospital treatment for almost a year and they have been great.

We've had to wait 3 months for an orthodontist referral.

You do actually mean that in the sense that you think that that's a long wait don't you Herc?

OTOH I had to go to Bristol to have specialist root canal treatment a few years ago. And I know people who have to go there (or further afield) for specialist treatment for chronic conditions. You'll have a centre of excellence for EVERYTHING in London. Here, the centre of excellence might be here, it might be plymouth, it might be Bristol. Administratively, that's all fine - it's 'south west'. In real terms though, it's clearly not especially since the trains are so rubbish. That's a huge problem down here actually - Bristol is neither south nor west, it's basically in the midlands really, but for administrative and mainly political reasons, it is deemed to be the headquarters of the south west and soaks up a huge amount of funding and spending to the detriment of the well being of people who actually live in the south west.

I was contrasting that experience with Retro's - dentistry in general has been less well resourced down here than in some other places, and compared to other branches of the NHS, ever since I've lived here.

I think dentistry is getting crazy generally TBF, but 3 months would suit us

I'm going to have to stop talking to Devon residents, even the ones I'm related to

Have to say our NHS dentist is fab.We're in a small town,all are on the books and they are sooooo thorough and seem to squeeze as much as they can for me on just a visit fee.

We're on a 3 month call up with the dc as they weren't cleaning their teeth properly(they are filling free,just sayin). All 3 will need braces and she is referring them immediately the baby teeth have dropped.She said we'll be seen straight away,no wait and all should get braces for free. Thank god!

Dp got root canal on the NHS and an emergency filling the day it dropped out.

Ok I'm aware I'm sounding smug now.

It is shit without Ikea though(not for much longer).John Lewis has made the wait bearable.

Look at st Leonard's - it's a lovely area, five mins from the river and quay, easy walk into town but very green. I moved away last year and I miss Exeter a lot.

And the RD&E has always been brilliant whenever I've used it. Gave birth to DD there, several emergency admissions, really great quality of care. Don't know about other areas but St Leonard's have a large fairly new GP centre and I always got appointments quickly. If I could afford the moving costs I'd go back in a flash.

I don't know about trains being rubbish? They were always quite good IME. (Ignores flooding and destruction of dawlish line)

The trains have been rubbish and hugely expensive ever since I've lived here (so, 18 years). I'm sure if you only travel casually, and infrequently, you're pretty likely statistically to get a service that isn't delayed, and if you have the ability to shop around on the train you book, and can book well in advance with a railcard, they can be decent value (even bearing in mind the cost of the railcards). If you travel frequently, and cannot shop around for a cheap train etc, (because you are constrained by things like flights or meeting times) then it's a different story. :( We don't even have wifi on our overpriced unreliable trains.

The trains aren't that bad! (Then again I dont pay full fare) but they really aren't that bad. Regular trains to waterloo and paddington, trains to leeds/manchester etc. Two trains an hour to exmouth, trains to paignton and Barnstaple.

They are oldrr but still useful.

Like I said. To casual users they probably seem ok. People who have to use them week in week out for work have a different view. Even if they ran on time - which they rarely do - the trains to London take significantly longer than trains covering a comparable distance from London to the north. And cost a lot more. That's the real problem - we are fobbed off with a worse service than everywhere else. Yet we pay more.

The south-west is where the cool people live.... Just saying :)

Yanbu. Love devon and cornwall.

We do use them regularly though Herc. Dp uses the waterloo line everyday for work, and Sil uses the main line to exeter everyday for work and then again to travel to her partners home (unless they are off obviously. ) At least we have train networks down here, and they havent been closed down like many were.

I see what you mean about the price though. Im lucky in that I dont pay at all on some services, and all others I pay (roughly) half a childs price. I used to hate paying £7odd to get from honiton to exeter on the train, but thw bus was even more!

If your DP has a (nearly) 4 hour journey there and back every day for work then I don't see how you can think the service is anything but rubbish. In the last week there have been several problems on both line, the Waterloo and the paddington, to the extent that I've had to cancel/rearrange quite a few meetings. For this, we pay far more than people taking equivalent journeys from the north to London (which take less time for equivalent distances) - and people I know who do that sort of journey day in day out think that their service is poor and constantly complain about it. If you don't have to pay for your journeys (FGW staff?) then I don't think you can really comment about the experience of regular commuters though. If I was getting the service for free I wouldn't be fussed about the insanely expensive 6:52 ALWAYS being late. Even when nothing has happened (eg being thrown off at reading or newbury as has happened to me so many times when there have been signaling problems or broken down trains (also the weather but that's not FGWs fault)).