New job in Luton - where should we live?

[ecofreckle]

My DP has just taken a job at the Uni of Bedfordshire based in Luton. We have a 9mo dd and have lived in Norfolk for nearly 20 years. We know no one in Luton so have nothing (other than the job) to take us there and I am scared of very urban living. We have family in Leicestershire. We are wondering where to move to!

As we are selling in Norfolk we will not be able to afford the 'southern' prices of the beautiful and nearby Chilterns . We ideally would like to be somewhere with a good community, good school, good transport link to Luton with some lovely countryside/walking nearby. Happy to commute up to an hour but prefer more like 45 mins.

We have looked at Market Harborough but it seems expensive (we have up to £200K). Anyone have any other inside info or ideas please?

Glittertwins - it's a an urban myth than Harpenden is affected by plane noise. It isn't. Harpenden is hyper vigilant at making sure planes don't fly over Harpenden. And the expansion plans use the same runway which runs east west orientation and the same flight paths - just more flights.

If you need to verify this, you can see the flight routes here:

www.harpendensky.com/PDFs/harpsky.rnav1.trial.pdf

I remember flights over our house. Pretty central harpenden.
There was one that always went over at 9.30

www.harpendensky.com/PDFs/harpsky.rnav1.trial.pdf

We live in central Harpenden and plane noise isn't a problem.

Leighton Buzzard. Good schools, small market town, sense of its own identity and community. Big enough that you won't get treated as a 'incommer'. Small enough to feel 'community'. Look at the Linslade side. Canal runs through it, good transport but surrounded by the Downs.

Underrated and thus you might get a bargain.

I think it depends which way the wind is blowing as to where in the vicinity the noise can be heard. I live near the airport but only sometimes hear the planes, we used to visit Harpenden a lot (to swim before Luton got a lovely new pool) and could sometimes hear aircraft.

And I certainly don't blame the residents of Harpenden being vigilant! We see the planes quite low near us but we aren't affected by the noise.