Moving Newark area

[Jillypops45]

We are looking to relocate from London to Newark area. DH needs to commute to London daily. Seen a house we like in Foston. Concern is that seen there’s historical planning permission for a traveller site. It’s a small village so I’m concerned village could become over populated. Any thoughts would be appreciated

I live in the area. Many of the villages have some land that is registered as a traveller site. You often don’t even realise as most have 1-2 small dwellings on them and blend into the community.

If you like the house and the area then go for it!

Just to note though Foston is nearer to Grantham than Newark, and not an area I would choose.

Can I ask why you wouldn’t chose this area please?

Even before I read your post, just from the title I thought I wonder if the poster knows it's pretty much traveller capital of the UK. I am local though don't know Foston specifically apart from driving past it a lot. Do you know how big the traveller site is likely to be? We have 3 in our village, one of which is a field they own and turn up every summer, the other 2 they have built houses on and then extended and keep cramming static caravans in. I'd love to say there are never any problems but I would be lying. All the inhabitants of one of the sites got sent to prison a few years ago for a substantial time and things locally were better. Burglary rate dropped in the surrounding villages. Obviously you can't tar all travellers with the same brush but for some of them they do stuff like this and it affects locals. My neighbour had a builder giving him a quote once and a van drove past, someone got out the passenger side and jumped into the builders van and sped off. Police chased the van to Tolney Lane site at Newark and then stopped, the police won't enter on their own which says everything.

Saying that they keep themselves to themselves most of the time and as long as you don't object to them pushing to the front of the queue in the shop (they will kick off big time if confronted) or happen to be perceived to be looking into their site when passing (I got screamed at once when cycling past) then they're fine.

My bigger concern would be the general run downness of both Newark and Grantham. Newark town centre is losing shops quickly. Grantham has always had a reputation for being quite rough. Schools are good at Grantham though if kids pass the 11plus. Newark schools didn't have a good reputation when dc were school age, no idea if that's improved.

I would choose a village a little closer to Newark if I had a daily commute to London, assuming you are getting the train from Northgate.

I haven’t experienced any of what the above poster has mentioned. The village where I live hasn’t had any problems at all with travellers.

Newark town centre is losing shop like every other UK high street at the minute, but it’s got a nice atmosphere. The castle is lovely, there are some nice restaurants and cafes and often events on in town.

If you want to pm me for more information on the village I’m in then that’s fine.

Thank you so much for all of the information. It is certainly useful and has helped to shape our housing hunt! Many thanks

Hi @Jillypops45, how are things going..did you make the move to the area? We are considering that commute also.