Moving with Beeb relocation to Salford quays... Anyone else?

[topsmart]

Okay, here goes, I am initiating my first proper thread.

DP's job is moving from london to salford quays next year. We finally have a move date of march 2011 (after signing up in sept 2010...) So it's all suddenly real and I have to shift our lives and get a nursery then school for DD who turns 5 next academic yr.

MN has proved invaluable for my manc research on areas to look at, so I wanted to thank anyone who's given anyone else advice on here as I have poached it all!

Now I'm wondering who else might be moving up as I'm sure some of you must be - or already have done. And I need heartwarming tales of how easy it has been to settle in. Or how much you need a new friend to go for a large glass of wine with!

Hello again everyone, and happy new year to all! I don't get on here much but have just caught up with all your comments.

JorjiB glad to hear there's someone else out there who's undecided, although in our case the decision is somewhat out of our hands. We have to wait until at least the end of Feb to see which company gets the post production contract, and then for them to decide whether they want to take my DH and some of his colleagues up to Manchester or to make them redundant. We are quite keen to go to Manchester if we get the opportunity; we have our familiarisation trip later this month so will hopefully get a better idea then.

Lollipop my DH works in post production, mainly for sport, in London (he's an editor) and it's being shut down - his colleagues have either been told that they're being made redundant, or that they're 'in scope' to transfer to the new company who takes on the post production contract in Manchester, should that company want them (which is DH's position). As I said above, that contract won't be announced until at least the end of Feb. So there's loads of uncertainty about who exactly will be doing the work at the moment. Might be best to wait until things have been clarified in a couple of months and then see if they're recruiting - they aren't at the moment. Hope that helps, and good luck.

There is a lot of negativity around the move but I think that relates to the politics of it rather than the relocation as such. It is shocking that The Head of North isn't relocating. (and if any one of you is Sarah Lancashire, I apologise )

IME the move has been a good one, and has been done well with very good support.

We aren't with the BBC either, but we will be relocating to Manchester in August for DP's job (waiting to hear where he will be, but chances are it will be Salford). He is desperately keen to have a cycle commute, so we're trying to work out which areas that would be...

iskra, my DH is hopig to cycle to Salford for work too. With that in mind we're looking in Trafford, from what we've been told it's a 20 min cycle ride to Salford Quays.

Is anyone coming up on a familiarisation visit soon?

Hi, just wanted to welcome you to Manchester! Although a native Mancunian I lived in London for nearly 10 years and now we're back in Manc. South Manchester is the most like good London and Salford a lot like scary London! Mediacity is not quite in Salford proper iyswim. Dead easy commute from Chorlton & Didsbury which are in South Manchester. Mummyisamonster, very easy cycle commute from Old Trafford, or did you mean Trafford which is a borough not an area?

Hello reikizen, ta for your welcome! We're getting very excited about our move - coming up in feb to have a look around again, introduce the kids to manchester etc.

Cycle commute-wise we're looking for DH to cycle from Urmston or Sale to media city, is that do-able? Those are the areas we're looking at, but we're trying to narrow it down!

I wonder how Topsmart is doing?

Topsmart how are things?

Yes, Topsmart, how's things? Really hope it's going smoothly and the stress levels are ok, come & share, we are here if you need us!

Thanks guys! This is where we are:

• we move 7 march regardless of whether we've bought a house
• we had an offer accepted on a house in old Trafford but they won't take it off the Market as we don't have an offer on our flat, fair enough
• we've had loads of viewings of our flat but no decent offers, grrrr
• so we're now accepting that we'll have to rent when we first move up. Estate agents are looking for us.
• we've had to apply to schools in the area we think we'll be moving to
• I'm up for the day on Wednesday to decide which nursery dd should attend, luckily 2 nice ones have space available.
• I've had flu twice in the last month. And there's been christmas and dd's 4th birthday in-between. As well as, you know, the rest of life!

Cartus are being v helpful; answer queries v promptly. Usually thyme given the info to dp already and he's mislaid it...

So, I feel like things are progressing and mostly I'm excited. Except I always wake up a bit anxious! Head is so full of lists.

How're the rest of you feeling? And fox how was your first Christmas up north?

Think that's it! I'll feel a lot better once we know where we'll be living

They've, not thyme. Blardy iPhone.

Ooh topsmart, it's all go! Sounds very exciting. Though poor you with flu and stuff, bloody typical. Hope you are fully recovered and cracking on with those lists

I phoned Trafford LEA the other day who were just lovely and very reassurring (I was having a hormonal, potentially weepy day but they were so nice I managed to hold it together). We haven't decide whether we'll sell our house ourselves or let the BBC do their GPS. We're having a local estate agent round to tell us how much she thinks we might sell it for..and how quickly too.

Just planninhg a quick trip to Manc over half term to look round a it more, try and decide on an area to live (though we've whittled it down a lot)and show the kids Manchester. They are really excited, and very positive, which is lovely, especially when I'm having a bit of a panic about the logistics of it.

Good to know Cartus are being helpful - to be honest I have only heard good things about them.

Lot to be said for renting you know. At least you can 'try' an area and if it doesn't suit, move elsewhere (though of course I doubt very much you'll be wanting to move around willy-nilly but you know what I mean.)

Good luck, keep us posted.

How's everyone else getting on?

Cheers mummyisamonster, am tons better. Just left with one of those annoying coughs which flare up as soon as i'm on the phone. Keep startling cold callers. Which is no bad thing!

Glad Trafford LEA are helping you - they've been v annoying for us. Manchester LEA were dead friendly, all "oh yeah, as you're 'relocating' not just moving then we'll bump you up the waiting list when you move into your manchester home". So we assumed, wrongly, that this is the case for all LEAs... Turns out Trafford will not move us up the list. We stay with our London address throughout the admissions process!
Am hoping this is bonkers and they'll change their mind once we shift. Am aware how unlikely this is as I used to work at an LEA... So we may well not end up with a decent school despite opting to move early in order to get a decent school! (DP will have to commute and stay in london for 3-4 days each week till June, great stuff).

Right, off to google how to hem trousers on my new christmas-present sewing machine so that they don't trail in the rainy puddles when i traipse round manchester on wednesday! I need to look presentable for these nurseries...

Yes, renting may well work in your favour. How old is you child? Have you got your eye on any school in particular? I think you are right, the process won't change to make it easier for relocators - there are too many people already in the system waiting for places at oversubscribed schools.
My DH has been reverse-commuting. It isn't easy - and it's harder for them - which we hadn't really anticipated. The only real advantage of moving early is so you aren't competing for school places against other relocators.
Estate agents are taking out full page ads in the local press saying "2011 The BBC are moving up here! Let us sell your house." it's a bit odd.

Hi everyone, I lived in london for 10 years and worked in PR and media. I have wound up in salford quays after retraining and absolutaly love it here and in manchester. I'm just about to have my first baby (due any day now eek!) and I'm finding the idea of being at home and not working a wee bit scarey as I dont know that many people here. If anyone would like to meet up for wine, a chat and to compare notes, I would be up for it! Paula

Excellent! Join the gang Fotherespie! Very lovely to hear nice things about moving to manchester. And jolly good luck with impending birth. Are you in that stage of "let's get on with it, I want to meet my baby / nooooo, why the feck did I ever decide to do this?". It's all worth it, promise!

And fox, you're right, renting could be good really. If only we hadn't jumped the gun and found a perfect house before actually being in a position to buy it! Drat.
DD has just turned 4. We have our beady eyes on Seymour Park (and Kings Rd) but I can see from the manchester evening news' FOI request that both are hideously oversubscribed. Ho hum. Waiting list for us!

I think that although this is a big bad of hassle, at this stage i'd rather just crack on and move, regardless of where we end up. We've been talking about moving for soooooo flipping long. It stops you from being able to plan anything - e.g. we've been in our flat for too long, should have moved out to a bigger place 2 years ago, but because we knew we were moving we hung fire.

bag of hassle, not bad of hassle. Can't blame that one on the iphone this time!

Hi Again, have been avoiding the move thing for a while, but DH has been googling houses and I think we've finally narrowed down our options and decided on suitable areas. Planning to come back in 1/2 term to actually start contacting estate agents and arrange some viewings. Have chickened out of telling the girls about the move again, DD1 (8) threw a huge wobbly at the weekend when we talked about painting over her orange bedroom door (painted by previous owners!) so am double-panicked at how she'll cope with the level of change we are planning.
I am already deep into de-cluttering and getting ready for the magnolia re-paint of every room. Deep joy.

Any thoughts on areas Smallerclanger?

Hi Fox, narrowing it down to the areas around & north of the Wilbraham road, up towards (but probably not in!) old Trafford area, seems to be the best for our price bracket. DP got a pay rise today, so we can push the mortgage a bit further, things looking better.

If you get the reloc package the Financial advisors were very good - as were all the services provided. Well worth speaking to IMHO.

Thanks, relying on DP to organise all that, need to remind him of his options, happy to take all the help we can. Starting to get a bit more excited now, able to look at bigger & nicer houses that we have currently, so that's a bonus.

Does anyone know anything about nursery places? We are moving up in August (not as part of the BBC, btw) & DD is due to start nursery in September. I'm really keen to get her started since I'm due with second in Sept too! I'm guessing we will just have to go on a waiting list unless we go private? I don't even know how nurseries work here in London...

What areas are people focusing on, if they don't mind sharing? I actually grew up in Manchester, but all I really know is Didsbury & the Wilmslow Rd corridor! We don't want to live in Didsbury, nor can we afford it... thinking of Stretford but not sure our budget will stretch nor which roads we should focus our search on. Going up for a look around in a few weeks though.

Most state school nursery places are dealt with by the school, so once you've decided on where you want to live, ring around the local schools and find out if they have any places, or what their waiting list is like.

There are a lot of private ones, but I think its a case of finding one you like when you get here.

Nothing really beats looking around for yourself. Have a look at the thread I started (its linked at the beginning of this one). There is lots of good advice from MNers.