Leigh area?

[Cinnabum]

Changed my username to not out myself.

We live in Cheshire, lovely town but my husband's job moved him and long story short we wanted to look somewhere with a shorter & cheaper commute for him.

We've found a house in Leigh, loved it and looked like a nice enough estate though we're well aware some areas are quite rough (as learnt in the house hunting process). Due to exchange at the end of this month but after a hunch I've followed the police on Twitter and then found another article about a 13 year old being abducted in a park around 9am and I'm having serious second thoughts & cold feet. We have an 18 month old and are expecting another in November... if we don't move into this house we'd have to continue renting our overpriced and unaffordable current house until the new year because I couldn't move with being heavily pregnant/having a newborn/Christmas ahead.

Anyone live in the area CURRENTLY and can give me some perspective? AIBU? Or is this not the right place to raise a young family safely/with good surroundings?

I live a couple of miles outside of Leigh and do some shopping and go to the bank there every week. I'm not aware that it is a bad place to live. Yes it has issues, there is a lot of unemployment and not many opportunities. However the people, in the main, are lovely. Genuine, with kind hearts.

Downside that's the impression I had when we visited. Very friendly, I like the indoor market and love taking our DD to Pennington Flash. Hope I'm just overreacting!

Pennington flash is great. You've got bents garden centre on your door stop which is amazing too. Elton john played at the rugby ground a couple of years ago, the whole town had a huge party. I wasn't aware of any trouble at all, it was just great fun with lovely people.