Up to date advice on moving to Warwick please

[SummerBeccy]

Hi everyone, as title mentions I would really appreciate locals honest and up to date advice on moving to Warwick. We are looking for a family home in a safe area with access to green spaces a lovely community feel and good primary school. We are considering a lovely house on the Warwick gates area which i also believe is called Heathcote. I have also had my eye on Hatton park for a while as it’s on the canal and near to the station which works well to link us to Birmingham direction. However Hatton park seems to be priced very high. We do not know what the communities are like, safety in these areas and would love to hear some advice. I am also very concerned to read about the smell and fly pollution issue in Warwick and does this effect Warwick gates area houses?
many thanks

Sorry can’t be of much help other than to say I think Warwick Gates is in Leamington not Warwick, although the towns pretty much join

What smell & fly pollution? Grew up in the area/visit regularly and have never heard of this !

@thrive25 the council have allowed a recycling facility for food contaminated plastic near Warwick gates. Alot of flies and smells and seagulls. A lot of complaints on neighbourhood Facebook groups

Hatton park - you will be stuck taxiing kids around. Also look at plans for mega new build development there without much new infrastructure.
Warwick gates has fairly good buses into town I think. So more independence for kids when they age.
Think both heathcote and Ferncumbe schools have good reputations so okay for primary.

What kind of budget are you looking at and what do you need? Previously lived near there so can make suggestions.

We discounted Hatton park due to plans to extend the estate massively and building work associated with that. Warwick parkway would have been really handy for commuting and Hatton country world is handy.

We discounted the various estates between Warwick and Leamington because of horrible traffic and rubbish public transport at the time. I cannot overstate the traffic.

We quite liked the bit between Cubbington and Lillington in Leamington. Good road links to A46, a couple of miles to Leam station which had great train service although busy for London trains (you're more likely to get a seat at Warwick Parkway), and schools are good. Don't go too close to Cubbington because of HS2.

Thanks all really helpful stuff
I think main thing is I don’t hear many negative points which is great!
like everyone we would rather spend less and stress less but with house prices going up and up we are extending our budget to around 450k with wiggle room to get a ‘family’ forever home not a first buy type house. However if it costs near our top end of 450 we won’t be able to do much to it so would need to be pretty move in ready at that price, we can do new paint and some flooring type thing. We will spend rest our lives paying it off so we don’t want to make the wrong decision.
Really good point about taxiing kids around from Hatton. I’m probably leaning more towards quieter places with walks at the moment as we are at least 14 years off taxiing teenagers around but appreciate it will be an issue in the future.
I read about the new plan for 8000 homes in Hatton and I don’t like massive new build estates much but have to admit it’s prime location for where we would need to be to commute (Birmingham and access to M40), so it’s something I’d look out for in future. I think they’re not building for many years yet. We are currently looking at a house that’s about 30 years old they seem so much more spacious than the new new builds. We also like 1930s semi’s.
The smell and fly situation really concerns us, we currently have to shut our mid terrace house windows about 5 times a day due to neighbours smoking various things and we would be heart broken to buy our forever home and have an even worse situation.
TIA

Rugby is not too far (20 minutes to Leamington) and much cheaper. It has grammar schools too and 50 minutes into London Euston, half an hour into Birmingham, handy for M1 & M6.

Town is not a patch on Warwick though but has nice villages and lots of new housing.

I’m in Stratford but have lived in Warwick. The new builds by Warwick Gates are plentiful but the traffic can be a bit snarly. Check schools too as I know somebody who struggled to get their child in to their preferred school.

Warwick gates is horrible sorry - just soul less newbuilds. The villages are nice - harbury etc

I think that the Lillington/Cubbington border would fit the bill nicely. The Scottish roads don't have much up at the moment but they've always been decent quality semis and I'd assume priced around the £400k mark these days.

Both of the locations that you have mentioned are quite far out from Warwick town centre. Hatton is a village the other side of the A46 and Warwick Gates is a big new build that I’m not even sure I’d class as Warwick. It’s right on the far side of Leamington and Warwick

You will have to use the car if you want to go in to Warwick or Leamington, these locations are too far out to walk. For us, we had to be able to walk in to Warwick from where we live.

Not heard or read about any issues that you mentioned

OP, there are lots of new builds in Stratford too. And loads more going up on the Bham side if that's important. I commute to Solihull and know all the routes to avoid traffic via Google maps. The traffic can be a nightmare around the A46, M40 etc. but there is usually a way through to avoid it. To be fair, it is much much better than it was 20 odd years ago!

I've never heard of any flies or smells. But I don't live in the particular area.

I'd really quite like to live in Hatton. I've been considering it. There are non-newbuilds that comu up in your price range. In fact, unless they've sold in the last few weeks, I think there are a couple? It's my daughter who is the reason for the commute. Once she reaches sixth form etc, I reckon she'd be able to catch train from parkway. But our current location makes this not a feasible option. If commuting is important to you, stay on the Bham side of Warwick.

Local here 🙋🏼‍♀️ AMA you like about Warwick!

The larger part of Warwick Gates/Heathcote is in Warwick so ignore the PP. It's a CV34 postcode which is Warwick. The Bolingbroke Drive corner is Bishop's Tachbrook, Leamington and the Medley Grove bit is Whitnash, Leamington but the rest is Warwick. But I digress.

If you're thinking Old Warwick Gates i.e. north of Harbury Lane then it's more established and settled. South of Harbury Lane 'new Warwick Gates'/Lower Heathcote is newer and finding its feet. But there are some lovely houses to be found in both.

Hatton Park my plumber says don't touch with a barge pole. The plumbing is a nightmare and a large % of his work is refits there. There's also the South Warwickshire Local Plan which proposed 8k+ new homes around Hatton Park. The Birmingham Road will become an absolute nightmare.

Warwick Gates is just by the M40 so easy to commute to Birmingham. There's also a new junction proposed in the SWLP which will make everything even better.

The flies/smell is particularly bad on Tachbrook Road. However, the Environment Agency is on the case and I do think it's getting better. A US company bought Berry Polymers and they're taking it all very seriously. The extra houses and traffic at Hatton would worry me more.

As a PP says you will have to ferry your kids anywhere that's affordable. Old Warwick Gates has good bus routes.

You might want to consider Hampton Magna as it has lovely walks and is right by Warwick Parkway for commuting to Birmingham. Bishop's Tachbrook has a lovely school but the buses aren't very good.

Schools are tricky as Heathcote was hugely oversubscribed every year until Oakley was built. Bishop's Tachbrook school and Budbrooke school are easier to get into. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Spotting you like 1930s semis you might also want to consider Whitnash. 3 schools to choose from. Technically it's its own town but it's not really. But it does have great bus links, parades of shops etc.

Some fantastic semis to be had there for that price. Really big plots so you can extend in the future.

Whitnash is a good shout, my stepdaughter and family have a lovely house there, really big garden. Loads of scope to extend.

Another vote for Whitnash - really lovely, lots of green space nearby (tho this is true really for all of Warwick and Leamington).

Sorry but whitnash is horrible

I couldnt live anywhere with the view of that horrible tower block

I don't think you can see it much from the Scottish roads?

Old estate is much better, the new estate has had many of the lillington problematic families there

I may be a couple of decades out of date, but Whitnash was v deprived when I was growing up in the area

Some of the small towns/villages have serious issues with drugs also - Southam in particular (here my info is more current from family who still live in the Warwick area)

Thanks for all the replies especially ickanorn so helpful 😊