To ask the best places to live in Merseyside area?

[Relocate89]

We potentially may need to relocate to Merseyside area for my work. Would need to be able to commute to Liverpool city centre.

Aigburth has been suggested and Wallasey Village on the Wirral.

Would need a 3 bed and budget about £250,000.

Any suggestions?

I’m shocked people suggesting Crosby/Formby/Ainsdale. 250K would not stretch very far in these places at all, especially Formby. Might be just about okay in the other 2 if you are happy with a project.

None of these are particularly useful for commuting by train to Liverpool city centre at all.

Southport line goes straight to Central

Have you had a look at Garswood, Bryn or Ashton-in-Makerfield? About 40mins into Lime Street on the train. A lot of great secondary schools (with an outstanding in Golborne).

Ashton town centre has an Aldi, Lidl and Iceland. Booming high street. These places have their problems - mostly idle kids - but have a lot of green space and good transit links (station, A580 and M6).

Sure, but they are all over 1.5 miles away from Southport station which is notoriously bad for parking and not hugely well served by buses , and then it’s what…another 45 minutes on the train in if you time it right?That would be pretty rotten to do day in day out. If getting to Liverpool by train is a must I would want to live within a short walk of a merseyrail stop, personally.

Edited to add: sorry, realise the middle one is 0.8 miles away from Southport station which is better.

Second one isn’t

If you can get a decent house within budget and good schools then it’s worth it

And they’re just a suggestion of what is in budget

Widnes Runcorn and Frodsham are all short train rides from Liverpool, less than 30 mins.

All have decent high schools.

Frodsham is a likely to be more expensive than the other two but is a nice village type place with good pubs, restaurants and small shops.

Earlier in the thread someone suggested Grassendale!

Big drug problems in Liverpool for young people, even "nice" south Liverpool areas. Plus it isn't very safe for teenagers to go out - common for them to get phones, bikes etc stolen in the parks. Depends where you live now and what they're used to of course but if you're coming from suburbia they might find it restrictive as realistically you aren't going to want a 12 year old going out alone even in the day apart from in certain specific areas. I'd go for somewhere outside the city personally. Merseyrail is pretty reliable and frequent services.

Massive generalisation! Suggesting that places like Mossley Hill and Calderstones have big drug problems reeks of bias. Saying 'nice' would seem to indicate that you have a low opinion of Liverpool.

Apologies from me- I don’t think any of my areas suggested would get something nice within budget, hadn’t appreciated how much house prices have risen.
Would possibly get a project in one of the ex council house areas in Ainsdale, but not hillside, birkdale, Formby, Heswall or nicer areas of Southport town.

Maghull, Waterloo, Lydiate and crosby, formby, Thornton all nice areas!

Hoylake is nice. Station straight to Liverpool and really good beaches.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146993633#/?channel=RES_BUY

I agree, I grew up in Liverpool and lived on the ring road around Sefton Park. Lark lane, Aigburth, childwall, Woolton are all nice areas with lots of amenities and good schools. St Hilda's is on Ullet Rd, & Bellerive are in L17 and the Bluecoat L15 is on the outskirts of childwall and was the number one school to attend. St Julie's is also a good school.

Ainsdale has a nice village-y atmosphere, some good bars/restaurants, a train station with regular services to Liverpool, not sure about the schools.

Lived there for many years. Know many people who went to Calderstones school. Most of them involved with drugs if only recreationally. That's the reality.
Depends what you mean by a low opinion really. Liverpool is a really interesting and characterful city. It's also a city with huge amounts of poverty, deprivation, crime, historically severe corruption in both police and council, although I believe those problems have improved in recent years, but still the distrust remains. There is a big homelessness problem even in south Liverpool - as in all cities, but it's spread to well out of the city centre.
I don't think anyone who's lived there any length of time and got to know local people would say any different?

I've lived here my entire life and would have to disagree. Calderstones and South Liverpool is a lovely place to live. You are right in some respects - Liverpool does have areas of poverty and higher crime but there is a massive difference between areas. I wouldn't define West Kirkby or Caldy by the crime rate and socio-economic profile of Birkenhead - Wirral is not an homogenous entity and neither is Liverpool. There is no homelessness problem in South Liverpool. Unless you mean 5 big issue sellers? The City Centre does....like London does. The OP should look everywhere. I haven't commented on suggestions of Wirral, Crosby etc as they are all viable options but starting to talk about drug problems and homelessness problems in South Liverpool is not helpful and a bit misleading. It may give the OP the wrong idea about a lovely area that should be on the shortlist.

This used to be the case but not anymore. This year no child was admitted (EHCP LAC aside) further than 1.369 miles. It has finally become a local comprehensive for local children, rather than how it used to be which was an undersubscribed comp with places allocated to children across the city. I suspect catchment will narrow further next year again! I’ve been watching this school for years and it really now is a good a good school. So much so that we moved less than a mile away from Calderstones to be guaranteed a place!

Waterloo in Sefton, 20 minuutes by car to the city centre, 15 on the train, countryside and beaches in walking distance.

Are you a wool by any chance? 😂

Where 3 bed semis in a decent state for 250k are rare as hens teeth

Our 3 bed semi was half a million 😂😩

Sadly, that's now the reality for so many of the nicer places in the North West