Moving to Maidstone

[Yasmineporillo]

Hello

we are looking to move to Maidstone. Found a nice little house in the town but being put off by all the online posts being a deprived area and high crime, is this really the case? We are a small family of 3 one child of 9 y old

We have walked around and it seems ok

Please any honest opinion is welcome

We really want to stay near the amenities too ME16 seems better but prices are a lot higher

Thank you so much

Yas

There are far worse places in Kent I can think of, Maidstone is ok, like most big towns, there’s a mix of good and rough areas, I’d check the area has good schools in the catchment area.

Maidstone is a hugely varied area, some really lovely and some yes very deprived. You may need to be slightly more specific

My DS lives a few minutes from the town centre and station. He's been there for over 20 years and never encountered any crime. My grandson can walk around at night and feels safe. They love it there and would never move. He's ME14.

Thank you so much all for the replies, If I do a search by the house postcode it comes as high crime/ deprived area due to the proximity to the town and the amount of incidents that happened in the proximity, it is so hard as anything could happen anywhere ! Lived in South London for years when young and never had issues but statistics used to say highly crime bla bla

The house is in Me14 near the community centre

Just want to make sure it is safe to raise a child

thank you

My DS has had no problems with raising his in that area. The schools were good and plenty of activities available.

Hi, I'm a Maidstone resident - which community centre as there are quite a few here. Me14 covers a lot of vinters park but also lots of other areas. If you're looking on Vinters, most of it is ok - I lived there for a few years and had no problems however there are garage break ins etc and some areas of the estate that aren't quite so nice but I felt pretty safe when I lived there and liked it. If you're sensitive to helicopters or particularly anxious, be aware that die to the close proximity to town the police chopper is out and over the estate very frequently.

I think ME14 also covers penenden heath, this area is nice and arguably would be my preferred area over vinters. If you want to post a more exact area I could probably give you more info. Maidstone is funny in that there are very fine lines between the nice bits and the not nice bits!

Morning
Thank you so much for your reply, the name of the street is Marsham street, we walked for a bit around there and it felt ok. If you know that area any feed back would be great

Thank you

Marsham Street is well located, near all sorts of facilities. My DS lives near the prison, so his neighbours are quiet 😂. I'd certainly be happy to live where you're looking.

It’s extremely central OP so you will get the noise/school kids / pollution / drunks at night at the weekend with being next door to any town.

My knowledge will be 15 years out of date but agree with the PP that Vinters Park is known as being chavvy area.
Bearsted (also ME14) much nicer - good primary school etc.

You’ve got the grammar schools which are good if your kids are smart. The only downside is some of them have become exam result machines and care less about individuals.

I think some of the other secondaries will be better now but it used to be a bit of a glut as all the talented kids (and disproportionately middle class due to pushy parents/tutors) would go to the grammar school leaving the other schools to all the behaviour issues.

Not sure on the primaries that central but the whole town will have changed a lot since I was there!