New Town, is it safe for young families?

[Nefe14]

Hello everyone,

We are looking to move to Colchester in the near future and are considering buying a house in the New Town - off Old Heath road, close to Recreation park. We've only visited the area a couple of times and it seemed like a decent place to live but never in the evening (we're currently in a relatively safe part of London).

I'm a bit anxious about moving to a totally different area and would appreciate some feedback from people who live there, especially mums with young children. The crime stats for the area are a bit worrying but I'm not sure whether most of the crimes are related to late-night outings and overuse of alcohol.

Any thoughts much appreciated!

Many thanks

Hi, anything from King Stephen's towards old heath is fine and family oriented. We live near the reck and think it is fine, we're never out very late but it seems fine. You see the odd rough looking person around Barrack Street but if it's between King Stephen's and the Crematorium or the new estate off of Port Lane I would say absolutely fine. We've been here for 8 months and not had a problem. I did see a fella checking out a bike to see if he could nick it from the coop once but that's it. I hope that helps, we think the Rec is brilliant and we picked the house to start our family in.

Thanks very much for your reply. That's really useful.