Dear Mumsnet! My husband and I are looking to move to the area and hope to start a family. We visit Southend, Leigh and Westcliff in the summer and feel the area would be a great place to raise our family.
We have looked around a house that we really like in Westcliff that is within walking distance of Westcliff station for my husband's commute [South of the A13, East of Chalkwell Avenue and West of Hamlet Court Road/Milton Road]. It is a lovely character property that is much larger than we could afford where we currently live in Essex.
There are some good discussions on here about moving to Southend which we have found useful but we haven't been able to satisfy ourselves that Westcliff is the right place for us to move to. We get the impression that Leigh and Chalkwell are preferred to Westcliff, parts of which can be terrible!
What we hope to get to know is:
Does anyone have experience raising a family in the area of the house we are looking at?
Is the house we are looking at in a good area?
We have visited at different times of the day and the road seems quiet. From the crime maps however we are concerned by the percentage of violent crimes in the area - particularly compared to Leigh/Chalkwell.
Do any mums recommend the primary schools in Westcliff?
I am going to speak to a few estate agents again tomorrow to see if I can read some more between the lines.
Thank you so much for any help! Sorry for the long post we have so much on our minds.