Would living next to a college put you off?

[Postapocalypticcowgirl]

A friend asked my opinion on this, as I'm a teacher. My view was I absolutely wouldn't live there, but (with her permission), I'm crowd sourcing other opinions!

She's looking at buying a new build (3 bed semi with garage and parking for one car) on a development that's right next to an FE college. The access to the development is via road that also provides the exit to the FE college car park. On the diagram, the area I've shaded in black is the college car park and sports pitches, with their main buildings on the east side of the car park. The entrance/exit to the college comes off a relatively narrow road- you can just squeeze two cars past each other, but I think a car and a coach would struggle, for example.

Just for reference, the plot marked on the diagram isn't the specific plot she's looking to buy.

The college has a reasonably good reputation, so I wouldn't be worried about major antisocial behaviour from the students (or no more than you'd get in that town anyway), but they are all 16+ and it's in a rural area so most of them get to college by car/bus. The college's sport facilities are used by college teams and community sports teams most evenings.

There's a few things that would majorly put me off, but I'm interested to know people's thoughts.

In my opinion, the house is also slightly overpriced for the town/location as well, and there are other new build developments in the town, although honestly all the locations have issues!

We live near a school that goes up to the age of 16. The school has expanded in the 25 years we have lived here. We would not choose to live that close to a school again. It was a small
middle school when we moved here, most of the kids were local so they walked to school. Now it’s a huge school with a lot of kids from outside of catchment and even those in catchment come by car. Every day, and I mean every day there are cars blocking our drive, some have even parked on it, it’s a narrow road, so cars mount the path to pass each other. It starts about 45 mins before school finishes and ends about half an hour later. There is no way an emergency vehicle could drive down it at pick up time.

The kids who are walking are loud, kick
balls, use scooters on the path etc but they are kids and are generally well mannered and those on foot pass through quickly. The litter is horrendous, every day someone from our road goes down the road and litter picks, we have a shop at one end and the school at the other.

The school is used for a number of other activities, music rooms are hired out, football pitches are used so often there is a lot of traffic at the weekend

My concern for a college would be whether there is adequate parking for the new drivers ( the 17 year olds) What noise will there be if sports facilities are hired out, the banging of car doors late at night can be annoying.

No, I wouldn’t live near a school or college again. Hope that helps. Gosh I have given a grumpy response. X

I live next door to a secondary school. Yes our cil de sac gets full of parked cars but it's never for than more than 20 minutes until the little darlings come out. Buses take the majority of the children and they park in the school grounds. The other thing is we know when there will be noise and we're not troubled by inconsiderate neighbours.

I wouldn't mind..

I think the main question is if she's on a walking route that involves masses of students going by, that would be a flat no from me. You've mentioned the cars but not the pedestrians.

Also, will she hear noise from the field? And does anyone hang around in the car park at night?

I saw a lovely flat backing on to a school but quite far, in terms of where that flat was situated. I thought, from looking at the map prior to viewing, that it wouldn't be too bad. But I heard them on their break, it's not a noise I can cope with. They weren't doing anything wrong, just a small school with kids on a break. I think the school was sectioned out so the flat backed on to the 14+? But the sound of that number of people chatting is annoying to me.

Also depends if she's home a lot.

Many school and colleges are busy in evenings and holidays too, with facilities loaned out for stuff.

Nope, I wouldn't choose to live there, because of parking, noise and general risk of tomfoolery from adolescents.

I think I would want to know whether the car park belonging to the college/sports stuff is large enough for their requirements - day and night. If it’s isn’t, the estate may end up littered with cars, which can be difficult knowing how narrow the roads can be on new developments.
also parking for 1 car if the house is 3 bed is a little bit scrimpy - a family of 4 could live in there and as it’s a rural location, it’d be fairly usual to have 2 cars.

Because of the location of the college and the rural nature of the area, I think most of the students drive in. They are allowed offsite during the day though- so I will tell her to think about whether they'd walk through to go into the town etc.

You'd definitely get noise from the field, it's less than 100m away, so if there's a sports match or something going on, you'd hear students. Lots of local teams use the field in the evenings too. She WFH a couple of days a week, so is home a fair amount.

Yes, she's buying with her partner and they'd have two cars. There is a garage though, I know these don't get used a lot.

From what I know of the college, it has grown quite quickly in the last few years. They've also started having adult learners on site from last year, which also means more cars. I'd be surprised if their parking is totally adequate. I've already suggested she drive around the surrounding area during the day to see if there's lots of students parking cars at various times of the day- but I think parking could become a huge issue!

Honestly, this includes a lot of my concerns- it's a relatively new college that has grown a lot in recent years, it's just recently expanded to take adult learners on site as well, so I think there's probably a lot of cars throughout the day. I do think you'd hear noise from the sports facilities at night!

I wouldn't want to live that close to a school or college, but I didn't know if that was a biased opinion!

I wouldn’t even though I do! I live on a road with four schools (it’s a long road) and the main problem is the traffic and the parking around one of the schools. They stagger the start and end times to the day for each school which alleviates the traffic a bit but on the other hand there is constant traffic for several hours each day. Also there are also regular concerts or sporting events or school fairs in the evenings or weekends which can be a pain. It’s so peaceful in the summer holidays!

@Notthesameasitwas Glad it's peaceful in summer. The flat I looked at, I rang the school to enquire and they said they were busy all summer as well.

OP obviously it's up to your friend, but I'd think use of the car park at night could be an issue unless it's very well secured, and her plot is away from it.

I ended up in a new build flat for a range of practical reasons and a lot are built on former trade sites on very busy roads, so if she's particularly looking at new builds, the same might apply to houses, I don't know.

Unless you're wealthy, we all end up having to compromise a lot.

For parking, surely the development will be permit holders only?

Family member lived very close to a FE college.nThe students would congregate around the front of their block of flats smoking etc. However I believe one of the residents contacted the college and as far as I am aware it stopped. There wasc@ little newsagent close by which probably entice them.

It would definitely put me off but not as much as living very close to a secondary school or, even worse, a primary school.

It wouldn’t put me off. I worry about places that might have antisocial behaviour like shopping complexes, pubs, restaurants. But with a college I would assume the kids have chosen to be there so are likely to be better behaved and there are lecturers, Head who could nip problems in the bud etc. I would only be put off if it had a bad reputation, but you say it doesn’t. The local college in my town is near a shopping centre and they don’t suffer that much with heavy traffic, so I wouldn’t worry about quantity of traffic either.

OP, it's a college with a nice reputation now. Who knows what will happen in 10,20 years?
Especially as it's in a rural area with no public transport.

I live two streets away from a primary and (admittedly quite small) high school. It's not much of an issue. Most kids seem to walk (inner city). There isn't much extra traffic, just the usual noise and hussle with groups of kids.

We saw a house we loved on a quiet road, put in an offer which was accepted. Only then did we realise that whilst we weren't right next to a college, we were on a lane leading from it to the centre of town. We were a bit concerned so went back and parked up outside of the house at college leaving time. Oh my goodness, the entourage of students going by kicking balls, dropping litter, throwing stones, shoving each other through hedges and the noise put us off. We withdrew our offer.

Should have said, the college is rated outstanding and is in an area with a good reputation.

I live close enough to a school where you can walk it in 10mins, but not close enough where all the cars park on my street (thank god) as it would drive me crazy! I used to live next door to a school though and it drove me mad, never again!

I know a woman who lives in an estate near a school, admittedly not a FE college. She says that on the day she works from home, she does not leave the house at all. This is down to the fact that she cannot get out of her house, unless she walks.
There are always cars parked across her driveway, always.
Obviously this must happen on the other days but she leaves the house early and arrives home late so doesn’t see it.
Personally no, I would not buy the house your friend is looking at.
The nearest fe college to me is near a main road. Due to the problem with parked cars the entire road is now painted with double yellow lines. The only reason for this is the sheer volume of cars which were preventing residents from getting in and out of their drives. There must be .25 of a mile double yellow lines at least.

We live near a big secondary. Yes, there is some littering and some noise, but very little (though it has got wore since lockdown). Parents can be dicks about parking, but we've never actually had our drive blocked. Worst we've had was some 'bovine' who was late for school bawling out a delivery driver delivering building materials, who was really trying to block the road for as short a time as humanly possible.
My view was she ought not to have set off so late for it to be a problem.
During the hols and weekends there are no problems, mind.

The traffic and associated pollution would put me off, especially as its 7 days a week with the sports clubs etc (where I am there seem to be lots of minor collisions and bad driving and parking getting DC to matches and training!)

Large sites like that can also be dark and miserable at night / early morning which I wouldn’t like if wanted to go anywhere on foot

I live very near a secondary school. It doesn't bother me, it's about half an hour of noise and parents parking a day (I don't look out the window at 8.15!) and that's about it, then they are all gone.

My house was at the top of the budget I could afford and so perhaps that's why I could afford it then (couldn't now, ridiculous price increases). I don't mind living in a popular street though, in that I'm not looking for rural peace and quiet and I'm on a bus route, even though it's very residential, so that was a bonus for us as we use public transport some of the time.

I can't hear the school at all though from my house, it's just the drop off and pick up times that are busy, I've never had anyone park blocking my car in, and if they did, I'd be out there like a shot!