To think England is too crowded

[toadworthy]

In my town on the South coast it really is chaos and getting worse all the time. Roads are a nightmare. There are never enough school places despite doubling the entry in all primaries. Soaring rents. Building sites all over.

AIBU to mind?
What's it like where you are?

I live in the South East. It's not crowded in the slightest.

More than enough Primary school places to go around, with OFSTED "good" schools still undersubscribed. Pretty much guaranteed a palce in the Outstanding schools if you're in catchemnt (I've never heard of a child in catchment not getting in). No probs getting a GP or an appointment once you're registered. no problem getting an NHS dentist. Housing pretty affordable. Less than an hour from London on the train.

I'm really not. I have no desire to be part of an immigration thread. I just wanted to see if I wanted to stick around. The OP is very vague.

Wales is crowded?! come on now.

Try travelling outside SE England before saying England is overcrowded.

You can't move in Pembrokeshire for all the crowds.

Come to Scotland - plenty of room here.

Parts of the South East definitely very over-cooked. YANBU.

Lou- I couldn't bring myself to respond to that comment!

Where I am is too.
Reason for it is local Tory administration allowing massive development, we do have space for it, but with no investment in infrastructure (schools, hospitals, doctors surgeries).
But if you need a restaurant or coffee shop you're in luck!

ok, Itriedtodohandstands thanks for letting me know.

when people start using the f* word as political argument, I guess I should realise its goading and just move right along.

It depends where you live. I'm in the north-west and while, yes, it's busy during tourist season, in terms of people who live here, it's not overcrowded at all. There are plenty of jobs, rent/mortgages are cheap, the countryside and beaches are beautiful - my quality of life is much better than it was in East Anglia.

But last time I was in London, it was horribly overcrowded. Which is why I don't live in London!

You need businesses on side to set up in unused areas - creating jobs and homes - Milton Keynes was a new city and was laughed at as I remember!! But its a long term view to get families to move

I live in leafy north London. Not especially crowded round here.

I went to London for the first time in two years the other day. It's got worse, certainly, on public transport. And parking is basically impossible unless you want to pay a fortune.

However, where we live about a hundred miles away is lovely and has two undersubscribed 'good' primary schools and plenty of work available. Loads of glorious open countryside, free parking throughout the town. I've never, ever been stuck in a traffic jam and can go door-to-door to work 14 miles in 15 minutes.

The NHS hospital is 20 miles away which is a bit of an arse and although on paper it's groaning, I've always had great experiences there.

You're just living in the wrong place OP. If you want to live in a popular place then it's going to be busy.

England is not overcrowded.
The SE is overcrowded due to poor planning by authorities that are happy for the rest of the country to decay while London booms.
Immigration is not to blame.

wordly It's really ok to actually type the word fuck on here. And strangely enough it's also ok to jump to the first conclusion that pops into your head about an argument. It just makes people laugh.

Lou and machi, Its not all about London or England though is it? Yes, here in Wales (I'm Cardiff area) we have vastly overpopulated areas, more and more housing developments, crackpot crazy house prices and school waiting lists as long as your arm....

Thanks for all your replies. I was just interested in whether I am being weird to mind so much.

I don't want to move - but thanks to those of you who kindly suggested it.
I've always lived here and I have young children and elderly parents to think about. So I will just have to get used to it I guess.

My problem is the very rapid change that has happened around me. I could get used to this level of population I suppose but the knowledge that it is going to get worse and worse and worse makes me anxious. Even if we do leave the EU and by some miracle migration slows down, what are the roads going to be like when all the current primary school kids are driving around?

Scotland looks and sounds like bliss.

For the record I live in Northumberland. Definitely no overcrowding here.

Agree
Would implement incentives to have fewer children myself.

Unless you count sheep.

tiggy and bishop are right.

My Dd goes to the beat (according to ofsted, though I disagree) school in the area. It has almost 3k pupils. Massively over subscribed. No other secondary within 7 miles. The nearest school is about 45 mins on a bus, at least. It has 3 applications for every place.

There are three new estates going up near the school that will total over 1000 houses, in the next two years. The primaries in the area are all full. More places are having sites cleared ready to start building.

Building the houses isn't a problem. It's The provision they are forgetting.

Where are all the children moving into the new estates going to go?

As an aside it pisses me off that these new builds are using the school as a selling point when they can't guarantee anything regarding schools.

"Overcrowding" in the UK is primarily a result of a failure of regional policy by successive governments.

There are places in England where you practically can't give houses away (the city where my nephew lives famously sold off houses for a quid), and parts of Scotland which are suffering from depopulation.

The problem is an excessive concentration of economic activity in the SE corner and, elsewhere, too many unoccupied second homes. My dad lives in a pretty Norfolk village where the permanent population has fallen so far that it's a struggle to keep shops open, yet houses go for millions to people who occupy them just a few weeks a year. The listed building in which my father lives was split many years ago into four large appartments, all of which were occupied full-time until the last decade. Now three of them are empty for 50 weeks a year. My friends in Devon report the same problem.

OP, why didn't you just put all that stuff about leaving the EU and immigration in your first post? Cut to the chase, like.

Oh and YABU. England/the UK isn't too crowded. Certain parts of it are more heavily populated (as has been pointed out, your town may be popular because it's on the coast), but less than 10% of the UK is actually 'urban' (in the sense of 'built on', ie including rural roads and buildings too).