Weston-super-Mare. What's it like for families with small children?

[2under3inkent]

My husband and I are looking at moving somewhere closer to Bristol and have been looking at Weston-super-Mare. Can anyone give me an idea of what it's like? Nice place to live? Worth checking out?

I imagine Weston-super-Mud is equally grim for all age groups.

Have you been there?

I’ve been there a few times, passing through & on business so perhaps I’ve got it entirely wrong and my impressions are out of kilter.

I hope others will tell a different story but the word Id use for the town is “depressed.”
Do your research carefully.

Lots of people move there and commute to Bristol as you get a lot more house for your money. I worked there and wouldn't choose to live there personally but day trippers seem to love it, it's so busy on a sunny day

I like WSM it has some lovely residential areas.

I live in Weston-Super-Mare.
Yes it is an area of high deprivation and in some ways it shows. However there are some really good points too.

The main negatives for me are the amount of dog poo everywhere and the empty shops in the town centre. The pavements etc are in a pretty bad state (not helped by the recent fibre optic installations). So I guess that gives it the depressed impression that @MinervatheGreat mentioned. It’s also very windy a lot of the time!

However there is always something on for families and a lot of it is free. Really good events and festivals. In the summer especially there is something on almost every week.
I also love our walk along the seafront to school and that we have the choice of beach or woods as well as the town centre within walking distance. Every day during that first lockdown I thought how lucky we were to live where we do.

Worle, Wick St Lawrence, Bleadon, Uphill and other surrounding villages are all considered ‘nicer’ areas. Also Broadoak area if you still want to be within town.

The schools aren’t amazing academically but we’ve been happy overall with the schools we’ve used. My eldest child left school with all grades 6-9 in GCSEs and second child is predicted to do similarly. Our current primary school is a very friendly and welcoming school and my children love it.

It’s by no means the best place to live and there are obviously far more idyllic places but we’re happy here.

I grew up in WSM in the 1980s and 90s when it really was a shithole but it has improved since then.

It was great to be able to go down to the beach or in town as a teenager. The main issue was I had to go to school out of town as the main schools were awful (may have changed since). I was on a bus at 7am to get to Bristol.

My dad still lives there in a lovely house on the hill. We visit and can do parks, beach, walks etc so there are good areas as a previous poster mentioned.

I'd look at Clevedon or Portishead instead.

WSM isn’t great. The town centre is very depressed, full of pound shops and junk food. Plenty of much nicer places in North Somerset depending on what you want. Clevedon is lovely if you want to be by the sea, Portishead is very nice but traffic in and out is a problem. There are lots of small villages in the rural part that are commutable to Bristol. All depends what you’re after really.

Very depressing in the winter months

Antisocial behaviour is an issue in Weston-super-Mare. And drugs.

Join some of the community Facebook groups to get a better idea?

I can't say the issues are that different to most towns in Somerset, bar the more affluent and expensive areas. There's always good and bad points. WsM is good for commuting. As are most towns near the M5.

There does always seem to be something happening in Weston events wise. You definitely could "make the most" of living there if affordability is a consideration. Typically, you pay a lot more for the desirable areas closer to Bristol.

Do you live here?
I can honestly say that whilst I’m aware of incidences of anti social behaviour and of a drug issue it has never directly been an issue for me. I live just off the town centre and walk through town every single day. Yes you see homeless people, some of them drunk/high, yes you see some drunken shouting outside bars, I’ve seen a couple of late night fights, there was recently an issue with a group of teenagers causing trouble in the bus station. There was also a drug related murder very recently but this is not at all a regular occurrence!
I’m not by any means saying that these issues don’t exist and aren’t a problem but day to day you can live here and not be at all affected by them. It’s not like everywhere you walk is full of antisocial behaviour and drugs. I don’t ever feel unsafe walking around here. My teenagers say there’s only trouble if you go looking for it.

@hilhillside23 I live close and work in WsM. I have spent a significant amount of time there for all of my working life.

I spend a lot of time in the Town Centre and I do witness a lot of things frequently. My work does skew my experience to have a broader knowledge of social issues across the County.

WsM isn't any worse than other larger towns locally.

Whether you are directly impacted or not by the issues, as with everything, it's always fine until it isn't. It is more likely to become a problem and you become innocently involved if this activity is more prevalent. You're never a victim of something until you are.

These issues are higher than the average in this area. There are nicer places the OP could choose to live given she has an absolute choice at this stage.

Like I say, they absolutely could move there and make the most of it. But there's a big difference between recommending something and saying "yeh, it's okay if you don't experience xyz".

@hihillside23 I would also say that I have moved recently to be closer to work.

It would have been cheaper and reduced my commute to move to WsM. I chose not to despite those benefits.

But no means am I saying all residents live an awful life. Or that it's all bad.

I just chose differently.

@Shaunthesleep Thanks for replying, that makes perfect sense and I do agree with everything you say. Good to know you do actually have knowledge of WSM as all too often people are very sneery about it without having actually spent any time here.

I’m not denying the issues however I also don’t want the OP to think that it’s somewhere where you can’t walk along the street without experiencing antisocial behaviour or that there are gangs everywhere or that your kids will be offered drugs at the school gate because it’s not like that! I think you’ve expressed your issues with it fairly though.

I’ve fairly recently moved with my OH and our primary age kids to W-S-M (North Weston, outskirts of Worle) from the midlands and there’s definitely a thing about true Westoners absolutely slating their own town and arguing the toss with anyone who dares say otherwise.
I have pretty high standards and we’ve fallen in love with the area. The only two things that could be better are schools and weekday morning traffic. We managed to land a school that were told by many was the best - it is alright but not a patch on the school my kids moved from - academically it doesn’t seem to be as challenging and organised and they also don’t promote extra-curricular activities or much else outside of the 9-3. Morning traffic has blown my mind taking 30-40 minutes to do an otherwise 6 minute journey getting to the M5 but makes sense with it all leading to one road out!
If those are the only two things I can call out as could be better then it can’t be all that bad considering I moved my family out of an affluent area, halfway across the country to settle in ‘Weston-super-Mud’ according to the locals.
Honestly, the locals need to get around a bit more and see that it’s not a bed of roses above the M4 - you lot have got something good going on down here!

WSM is the sort of place you really need to visit a few times before deciding whether it will suit you to move. We lived on the outskirts for a while before shifting closer to Bristol. The countryside around it is lovely but the town itself doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be.

As PP have said you might want to think about schools and I fully agree that the rush hour traffic is horrendous.

For context, where would you be moving from?