Help me chose where to live! Commutable to Glasgow

[foolssilver]

We are so stuck and looking for reccomendations. Neither of is know the area (apart from Glasgow) and have no family connections so can go anywhere.

Requirements are:

Commutable to Glasgow with 45 mins max

Good schools

Would like a sense of community and ability to make friends. Niether of us have many friends here so important.

Have a budget of up to £220 so no where too extravagant.

A bit of a village feel, although doesn't need to be an actual village if you know what I mean.

To give an idea we really like Bridge of Weir but nothing is coming up in our price range. We are bursting out of our flat so needing to move asap.

Thank you!

Not Kilmarnock or Irvine area - economically depressed, really bad schools, massive drug/alcohol problems, i could go on and on about hhow bad it is here

Prestwick is nice, Stewarton and Dunlop rural and villagey.

Houston and Bridge of Weir are nice - good primary schools, and the local secondary school, Gryffe High, is an excellent school - when we moved to Scotland, we chose to live in catchment for Gryffe, because then it was in the top 10 schools in Scotland.

Houston and Bridge of Weir have a bus service into Glasgow, taking under 45 minutes to get in, in the rush hour, and often under half an hour home - it is regular and pretty frequent.

I am happy to talk to you via PM or give you my phone number, to give you more info, Foolssilver.

I've heard the trains from Ayrshire are very unreliable.

Neilston is in the catchment for Eastwood high school in Newton means, which you wouldn't think from the map.

School wise it also depends if you are looking at Catholic or non denominational schools.

Some areas have one that's good and the other not so.

West Kilbride?
Milton of campsie?
Uplawmoor?
Gourock?
Bargeddie?
Plains?
Thorntonhall is very posh- prob out of price range.

Is Lanark too far? It's very lush around there.

Remember the travel times will improve soon when the m8 and raith interchange have finished being upgraded.

Falkirk High catchment. Trains very regular to and from Glasgow.

The Ayrshire line has a fleet of new trains now.

Helensburgh and Balloch both have a village feel without being villages - Helensburgh has more shops (and kids activities) but Balloch has more tourist-y stuff. Stretching to the max your 45 min commute though.

I used to live in Falkirk and didn't like feeling "land-locked". Is there any particular kind of scenery you like? Seriously...

Thanks again everyone. We are off for a tour around East Ren shortly. Hopefully will see some places we like.

Falkirk seems to be the best place if you want to be between two bit cities, same distance roughly by train to Edinburgh or Glasgow and Stirling's not far away either. Being central has it's advantages.

I have family in EK and find it to be very built up, personally could not live there myself. Too urban!

Helensburgh is nice although less kids activities now that the soft play is closing, but the schools are very good and its about 30 minutes to Glasgow on the train (longer by car).
Balloch has much much more to do for families. Nice parks, nice restaurants, lomond shores for shops and kids activities like soft play, tree climbing, fairground, aquarium, sedgeways, biking etc. There's lots of new builds in Dumbarton too.

Strathaven is lovely but too far out for you. You need to drive to East Kilbride for the train and the roads are bad in the winter .

SDT - are you still around that way?

We just miss the gryffe catchment which annoys me. I went there (a long time ago!) and would like my kids to go there too.

There are a couple of houses on in bow at the moment within your budget. Looking at what others have linked to, you do get a lot less for your money though! But I love the area and have been around this way all of my life.

Elderslie is also nice. Not so rural though but great for commuting - Johnstone station is handy - 15 minutes in to Glasgow Central.

How do you all know school rankings ?

Harverina when you say you went to Gryffe High a long time ago are you of the era of carpets up the wall

Redglitter ha! Not quite but my sister was - she was the first class in gryffe and helped to make the murals on the walls! I left in 1999

(Though actually I think there may still have been some remaining wall carpets!)

www.educationscotland.gov.uk/parentzone/myschool/findaschool/index.asp

The government don't produce league tables, but other organisations do, with the information provided by Education Scotland

www.heraldscotland.com/news/education/school-exam-league-tables-our-council-by-council-guide.1387454226

An hour and 40 to drive newton Mearns to west end. I could walk it in that time.

I would seriously look at commuting by train. Where do you park Near central?

Seriously I think I will wake up and Glasgow city council will have slapped double yellows round my bed and a parking meter by the toilet the way they are going.

We have a work car park but may be moving offices so station or access to a park and ride are important I think.

Our jaunt around East Ren was good. We liked Uplawmoor, Busby, Eaglesham and Waterfoot so have registered with Estate Agents for those areas.

Just not sure if Uplawmoor is a bit far out.

Will try and check out some other suggestions this weekend.

You will get more for your money house-wise in Falkirk area rather than in Glasgow areas.

Harverina - yes we are still in that area. When we were looking at areas to live, we got hold of a set of school league tables that the Times had drawn up - with the government info, as StaceyAndTracey says.

To be fair, I don't know where Gryffe sits in the league tables now, but it is still a very popular school, and we think the boys have had a really good education there.

When we were looking, they did have spaces in some of the year groups (we were househunting etc in February), so you may be lucky and get places on a placement request. Or you could move a bit closer to me, and I will get the kettle on!!

How old are DCs?

Beware of moving to east ren at this time of year if you are looking at p1 or s1 entry, lots of schools are full!

Dd is only 2 so really just thinking ahead re schools. Would ideally not want to move again unless work circumstances changed drastically.

There are very few village type places close to Glasgow that have wonderful schools and you can buy a family house for £200k . Sorry to be so blunt. You need to compromise on one or more of these

House price
Schools
Village feel
Commuting time

Glasgow is a big city , so most places that are within 45 mins are quite suburban . There are excellent schools in East Dunbartonshire and east refrewshire , but they are suburban and expensive , you will get far less house for your money

Cheaper places like uddinsgton and Falkirk have ok but not brilliant schools. But given that your child is only 2 , this might be a better bet for you . You have 9 years to worry about high school !

Or go out further and have a much longer commute, but more rural ( Ayrshire , renfrewshire, lanarkshire, Stirling ) and more village like .

Very excited! Got some viewings lined up over the next few days.

Thank you everyone, we hadn't even heard of some of these places incomers so your help has been invaluable.

There's Carmunock which is a village but technically in Glasgow but it's high school catchment is castlemilk.

Be careful with villages- some have great primaries but feed into not so nice secondaries.

Also check out things like how flexible the LA nurseries are for the 15 hours time and wraparound care and p1 starts.