Beaulieu Park - Chelmsford

[pigletbevo]

Hi there
My husband and I have been thinking of moving out of London to Essex, Chelmsford and the Beaulieu Park development has really caught our eye. It looks lovely, it’s a little further out than expected but we just wondered what it’s like to live there. Are there easy ways to get into town - apparently there is a free bus service to town/ station? Also the school- we have children who would need spaces, is there a long waiting list and what’s the school like?
Thanks 😊

Easy to get to town, super crowded though! Not sure about the school because its so new, what year groups would you be looking at? Worse case there's lots of schools in springfield while you waited for a space

I think they will be building Beaulieu Park for the next 10 years, it is an absolutely massive development and a lot of houses. Which is something to consider...the face of the development will change over time. It has a sort of mini town vibe at the moment, but could feel quite sprawling by the time it is finished.

Something to watch out for (if you have a car) is that they have built a lot of the houses with half a driveway space. So you get a garage but then a driveway space which is only half a car length long! People park hanging over the pavements and obviously on the road as there is so little parking space. I think this must have been part of the planning permission to discourage car use, but it is very bizarre.

The long fabled Beaulieu train station might or might not be built. It is a running joke locally and many people moved to the Springfield area back in the 1980s on the promise of a train station! So I wouldn't plan any future commutes on it being available. Maybe think of it as a marketing tool and that if it gets built it would be a nice bonus.

Not sure about the free bus service, but north chelmsford can be an absolute car park at times. With zero traffic it is approx 10 minutes to get to the train station (town centre) by car. At approx 7:45am you are looking at 20 minutes. However, pre-pandemic this was creeping up regularly to 25 minutes. One broken down car or crump anywhere on the main roads can grind chelmsford to a halt very quickly. I think a couple of years ago the council reported that our roads were at 96% capacity during peak times, so god knows what they are now.

Thanks - it’ll be year 4 and 1 when we plan to move and 3 and reception if we move sooner. I’m thinking of speaking to the school to see likelihood of places coming up. Yes I am worried about it being crowded. Thanks

Thank you for all your help and advice. Yes I do worry about the size of the development and how this will affect traffic and even things like having guests over and where they would park 🤦‍♀️
The car park space thing is odd- they also build a space in your garden the other side of the garage for a second car which is odd too.
How funny about the train station- my husband was very sceptical about whether it would be built given that they haven’t even started building it yet.
Being a long way from the station may be a sticking point so I’ll need to find out a bit more re the park and ride.
I also worry about how busy Chelmsford is getting and it’s only going to get busier with this new development.

Thank you so much for the insight info 'thekaratekid' and if anyone else who happens to live at The Arbour (Beaulieu) Chelmsford development it would be great to hear from you regarding if you have experienced any faults with the actual homes/buildings as I am always very scepticle about new builds. I have 2 kids 5 & 8 and wonder how good it will be for them as we currently live in London and they pretty much can't just go outdoors to play with their friends but when I visited the development there seemed to be kids playing outdoors.

Thanks in advance :)

In terms of the quality of the builds, all I can say is that pre-covid we viewed some of the show homes as they were released. They were freely open to the public and a lot of people locally just popped in and had a nosey. Quite unusual from what I understand. It has obviously tightened up now.

We were very impressed with the show homes about 3-4 years ago, but the ones released immediately pre-covid were a bit shoddy. The windows were of terrible quality (cheap thin wobbly plastic) and looking out onto a balcony area were discarded screws etc from the building works. Things like skirting boards had big gaps around them and it generally felt a bit rushed.

I don't directly know anyone who lives there, but a family acquaintance had a lot of problems upon moving into their new build flat (a flood from dodgy plumbing to be exact). However, a lot of people seem very happy there, so I think there is an element of luck (as in everything).

Did you move here? I heard the school recently got outstanding but still no train station. We are considering moving to Chelmsford in the next few years and have heard good things about Beauleiu.

Network rail awarded the build contract this January (after they and the Essex county council signed their contract in December) and the plan is for the station to be up and running by 2025.

Ooh good news. I think we will go and visit, I like Chelmsford, just wondering how it actually is living here.