ESSEX-where is nice?

[divastrop]

dh and i want to move away from where we are now.my family live in essex/suffolk (well,my mum is in Ilford) and i want to move near-er to them,but not too near to my mum iyswim.

we have a HA house so the only way we are going to be able to move is to do an exchange,but i have no idea where to start looking for properties.

anybody can suggest where is good or where to avoid?

TIA

that'll be why all the secondary schools in this town are crap then

colchester is a good place to live and has good pubic transport ad cycle routes. For a good sized town I would choose it any day.

Some people thjink it is dull, but I disagree, there is a thriving arts community, good theatre, cinema in the town centre (not miles out on a shopping centre)

I love colchester and am proud to live here

it must be nice-nobody wants to move away from there,i have looked on loads of house exchange sites and theres pretty much nothing.i cant apply to the council either.

Diva - I'm sure something will come up in Colchester

If yuo lived there, we could visit you!!!

Colchester sounds lovely...I like the sound of the thriving arts community! Diva maybe there would be a fun singing group for you there?

Is it impossible for you to go into private renting? There could be a really interesting house with reasonable rent and a nice landlord just waiting for you?

Itsmyparty yeah people are making those arguments here and last I heard all the main grammar schools were ganging up getting together to make an independant entrance test and weedle out of side step the new plans So the poor (sinn fein) education minister lady has a massive fight on her hands.
The grammar schools are so powerfull and established here, I can't see them going tbh. (And I would like to be able to send my children to one if I thought a grammar school suited them best.)

Does Colchester have a college nearby?

There is the Colchester Institute which is really good.

there is also the Essex university too

i wouldnt go back to the insecurity of private renting,not with 5 children.plus we wouldnt be able to afford the deposits etc.

am going to have a chat to ds1's friends mum when i see her as she still has family etc down there so she might know the best way to go about things.

I know what you mean Diva. It's just that both myself and a good friend of mine (who's a single mum) have been through this. We spent years living on estates never fitting in, not wanting to fit in.
And there are so many lovely places to rent privately.
I know you want that security though. It is so hard to get the balance.

Often one thing needs to fall into place and then everything else will follow.

If I were you I think I would give it a time frame. Say for example you give yourselves 6 months or a year to try and get an exchange.
Then if you reach your deadline with no exchange then just go private, so you are not trapped for ever where you are.
Do those courses, develop your skills. What does your dh want to do?

Change is an adventure for children, they will be fine!

We live in Kelvedon in North East Essex - is about 25 mins from centre of Ipswich.

It is a lovely small village with a great school and good Grammers nearby.

There are lots of us Mumsnetters about and we meet up regualrly - most of them live in Colchester.

Avoid Wickford, Basildon, Vange and that area though as well as Witham.

I think parts of Southend like Southchurch, Thorpe Bay and Leigh are nice. Southend has 4 grammar schools. But the best public services and amenities are in Essex are in Chelmsford and Colchester. I believe Chelmsford made it to channel 4's top 10 best places to live in the UK last year.
South Essex could be a shock to your system. There's a lot of people here fighting for limited services

witham was ok! bit dull there, when I moved there some years ago, I found all the shops apart from tesco were shut by around 5pm and the town centre was dead, but it was good as the pace of life was much slower than other places. the new housing estate is ok, the only problem I saw was that braintree council were taking services out of witham and relaocating them to braintree and bocking and so the town was becoming more of a dormitory place. chelmsford is growing too fast and is getting expensive but has many amenities. colchester is nice though, a city without being too big, one of the oldest cities in the country.