To move to Ripon or not?

[princesconsuelabananahammock]

Is anyone from near Ripon at all or know what it's like to live there?
We have only just reserved a house in Yarm but a house in Ripon has popped onto the market suddenly and it's perfect for us.
Our commute would be better from Ripon and we loved the place when we visited it a few months back but decided against it due to no retail parks, cinemas etc being anywhere near it as we have teenage kids as well as primary age.
Is there still plenty to do around there for the kids and will I have 40+min driving to get to regular places like next, M&S food and that sort? Tia

I have friends who live not far from Ripon. They love it and the community seems very close knit. Lots of other little towns close by and not that far from York. I'd love to live there!

My friend lives in ripon and loves it. I'm sure she said there's a small cinema. There's lots of little shops and it's not far from Harrogate and York

Ripon delightful. Lots of nice shops. If you want really large complexes it is Newcastle or Meadowhall/Leeds but that's not really any different to living in Yarm

I would live in Ripon any day compared to Yarm

I lived there, it's nice but no not a lot of big shops, you have to go to Harrogate or York. They do have Booths though.

There's Booths in ripon so you wouldn't miss M&S food much.

My parents live there. I really like it because it has a nice town centre with enough shops there you can get stuff from - i.e. birthday presents, some clothes, a Boots etc and a pretty active market on a Thursday morning. It also has a ton of cafes and restaurants (chain and non chain) due to the quite tourist nature of it. I love the old swimming baths, fountains abbey etc being on the doorstep and it has its own small cinema and quite active youth clubs.

Shopping village at York (can't remember the name of it) is only 35 mins away, as iLeeds isn't much further and Harrogate has all the big name shops you mentioned and is only ~25 min drive. You can also get the 36 express bus all the way to Leeds (good for the kids)

On the flip side, it has no train station, parking can be a nightmare in the centre, and there seems to be waves of petty vandalism (the last I think is probably no different from a lot of places) and Harrogate also seems to get the lions share of council funding etc. They're also earmarked for major housing development on the old barracks which is causing a lot of consternation due to the impact on already stretched public services (Drs, schools etc)

If schools are a consideration, do your research as they have the grammar etc but its competitive and I dont know what the alternative is (i.e. we dont live there so I dont know, rather than it be a mare!) and the primary schools seems to be a bit variable