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Bug16

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Posts posted by Bug16

  1. To help me narrow my search, are there areas that you would particularly recommend considering we have a limited budget. Whare areas offer the best value for money and are nice and still central? I looked at Mill Road area also but as someone else said, prices seem inflated and the houses that are affordable are tiny. Any suggestions? Thank you!

    Move outside of Cambridge.

  2. Blimey, you make it sound almost like Beirut!

    I stand by everything I wrote, I'm sure the other poster does as well.

    Milton Arms - dunno, only ever been a couple of times at lunch with work but looks a bit shabby & cheap.

    Everytime I've been in there in an evening there's been trouble (not with me, or started by me in some way!). Around ten years ago it was actually a pretty decent pub but it now appears to be pulling problem people from Arbury in the evening.

    Milton is ok. Not sure what the poster above has against the Rowans particularly. It does have a lot of renters who work at the Science/Business park and also quite a few Europeans. Don't know if that bothers you but there's no real trouble here.

    It all depends on the part of The Rowans you live on. My friend has his house set on fire by youths as he had had a go at them for throwing bricks at his car (rag covered in petrol pushed through his letterbox). There was also another similar case in the paper a few years ago. The Tesco end has always had a bad reputation however the north end of The Rowans (Faulkner Close side) is very nice.

    The Sycamores (the road behind the Rowans) is nicer and has more family-type housing. Fen Road and Butt Lane are ok.

    Agree. Butt Lane is a very nice road to live on.

    Who is the estate agent for the house on hopkins close/woodhead drive you were referring to, I would be interested to find out more. There may be a deal to be done

    I don't know, I've not driven past there for a few weeks now and I can't find it on RightMove. If you are interested in the house I would seriously suggest driving past it (and the flats opposite) late on a Friday night to see what you think of the noise (loud music).

  3. this thread is 11 months old. I very much doubt this would be happening at the moment! Eas wil always push their in house mortgage advisors though whatever the Market.

    When I started looking for a property seriously at the end of last year most EA's would not deal with me unless I was financially vetted by their MI. I was not happy with this as I felt they were just wanting to know exactly how much I could really afford, so I refused. This came with some interesting "advice" that I would:

    1. Not be put on any of their mailing lists.

    2. No advisor would call me up in advance of properties going on the market meaning that I wouldn't get a potential early look.

    3. If two or more people were interested in buying the same house I would be prioritised to the bottom of the pile and the seller would be advised to take the other buyers offers more seriously.

    All of this was said very politely but the message was quite clear, if you don't use their MI they won't deal with you particularly effectively as a customer. Luckily for me I found a small independent EA who didn't operate like this!

  4. I was renting in that area last year and looked at the Miller development when their prices were dropped in 2009 (they have since gone back up by @10%).

    They can't be shifting too well as there are billboards offering ££££ price draws if you buy a house and other offers.

    The internal dimensions of the rooms are small, and glancing through the windows there you will see that the current occupants appear cramped. I'd check that you can actually get your car inside the garage and open the doors to get out. The area itself looks OK superficially, but take a wander through the section of Downhams Lane off Woodhead Drive that connects into Arbury.

    Agree. Walk down Woodhead Drive and check out how small the garages are on the new development for cars and then check out how small the parking spaces are. You won't fit a car in the garage and the drives aren't full size, they're slightly over 3/4 size. The houses are typical new build which means minimum fire safety between houses, MDF walls throughout and you'll be able to hear your neighbours fart (I'm not kidding) as their is no insulation against sound.

    That comes out by the flats that have quite a few 'social problems' (go there in the early evening and you'll almost certainly see them), and I found that a bit too close for comfort.

    The flats around there are indeed noisey, normally during the night.

    Admittedly a lot of the noise and disruption in the area GNC came from having builders on site, and hopefully the end of that should be in sight.

    They've finished phase one of building around there, phase two is currently in progress so expect noise for a good few months.

    As for facilities - you have equidistant co-ops at Green End Road and Arbury Road, and a Tesco local through the cut into Arbury. There's a post office on Kings Hedges Road. Coming back from town at night along the Milton Road is not pleasant. The Milton Arms often has groups hanging about, and I've had far too many drunken youths try to pick fights with me as I've been walking home.

    Again, agreed. The Milton Arms is not a nice pub in the evening, it's not exactly great during the day either, ditto The Golden Hind which is further down Miton Road.

    If you cycle, you'll get used to smashed glass along that stretch of the shared use pavement/cycle path, and there's regular hassle from motorists if you choose to stay on the road rather than use the shared-use cycle path.

    Ah.. you're missing out the bits about motorists who park on various parts of Milton Road footpaths and cyclepaths (yes, on the path not the green bits) and also those who drive down the paths at 20MPH expecting pedestrians to leap out of their way.

    You'll also get used to the sound of the police helicopter overhead. Initially I thought I'd be happy enough living in or off Woodhead Drive, but after a year I was keen to move away to a better area.

    Agreed. A friend of mine lived in Hopkins Close for a year and that was also long enough for him. He experienced lots of problems with neighbours there as well, like a lot of that area in Cambridge it started out as rental properties for people at the science/business park but when that collapsed in the dotcom bust the workers have slowely been replaced with "problem" dole lifers. By problem I mean petty crime increasing, drug dealing and a LOT of anti-social behaviour (extremely LOUD music every night all night and worse at the weekend, fights in the street, etc etc). I'd love to know how much of the area is social housing and how much will turn into social housing.

    Also think do you like the sound over overpowered, uninsured, fat exhausted, chav mobiles during the night replete with ten of their mates on the back seat listening to hardcore techno at full volume? If the answer is "no" this might not be the development for you.

    Regular residents complaints are the coaches that park at the northern end of Woodhead Drive, blocking access/visibility onto Milton Road and the Use of Woodhead Drive by local driving schools. You'll usually see 3 or 4 learners practising 3 point turns throughout the day which regularly blocks the road - it does become annoying, but nothing more than that. Overall I'd say the area was preferable to Orchard Park, and yes, it does have parking which in Cambridge is a massive bonus, but you'll not get anything you could call a garden on that development.

    The learners aren't too bad and at least slow the idiots doing 40-50MPH on Woodhead Drive down, the coaches are a massive nuisance because you not only have to avoid upwards of four coaches on a blind corner but when people queue to get onto them in the morning they block the entire run of pavement with people and their baggage.

    Basically, the development around that area looks pretty good initially but once you live there prepare for lots of problems. I cannot stress it enough that you need to drive around that area at night, late at night.

    The only real bonus is that bus wise you can get the Citi4 (very regular), 9/X9 (reasonably reliable), Citi 2 (good luck!) very easily. Oh and you're near-ish to The Green Dragon pub.

    Btw, you're not looking at the detached house on the corner of Hopkins Close/Woodhead Drive are you? If you are, it's been empty for months so haggle on that if you're keen.

    Edit: Re the price. Two bed (ok you said "floor" not bed), end of terrace new builds with parking (drive) normally go for a lot less than £245 in that area. Unless you have a burning desire to live in Cambridge I'd recommend you have a look at MIlton:

    Milton

    As you get more bang for your buck, you're 2 miles from Cambridge city centre and bus wise you can get one of the "9"'s (I can't remember if it's the 9 or X9) or the ever random Citi 2. Failing that cycling from Milton is a doddle what with the cycle bridge over the A14. Like everywhere there are good bits and bad bits in Milton, e.g. The Rowans nearest Tesco isn't somewhere I'd choose to live.

  5. Since you mentioned it, thank your lucky stars you were renting the horrible noisy place in that you could up sticks in a month, it won't be as easy to choose your neighbours when you 'own' a place and if nuisance neighbours do move in next door, you're obliged to disclose this if you try to sell your house.

    Not wishing you noisy neighbours btw, just balancing the viewpoint.

    Totally agree.

  6. What a strange post. So you are SURE that house prices are falling, yet regard renting as throwing away money? I think in reality you aren't so sure that they are going to fall.

    Re-reading what I typed I wasn't too clear with exactly what I meant. Yes, I am quite sure that house prices will continue to fall. However, I'm not convinced that the drop in price will be soon enough for me personally or vast enough to make me hold out further. If I'm wrong and houses drop 30%+ in price then, well, that's life and I'll live by the decision I've made at this time. I'd still need somewhere to live and negative equity will only effect me if I have to move.

    I don't want to get into a huge debate about renting as I rented for 14 years in various guises (as a student, changing jobs and areas I worked in, being priced out for six years etc etc) and there is a valid point to renting and paying rent to live somewhere. Is it dead money? That depends entirely on what you want from renting compared to owning a house, there are pro's and cons to both.

  7. I'll raise my head above the parapit and admit that I also recently bought a house, for similar reasons to the OP. In fact I moved into the property over the Bank Holiday.

    I'm sure that house prices will fall further, possibly even dramatically, but for me it was a case of the right house (I moved from renting a horrible noisey 2 bed terrace newbuild, to a nice well built 3 bed semi with decent garage and garden) in the right location for the right price on the right mortgage. Sure I could wait another year and throw another 9k on rent on the possibility of further falls or I can put that money into a mortgage right now and continue with the hard saving, as my monthly mortgage payment is a lot less than my rent, and get my mortgage paid off quickly.

  8. Yet more grown up debate and sensible discussion - how wonderful.

    So basically anybody that doesn't agree with you isn't "grown up". You must be a lot of fun to talk to generally.

    I was going to reply to your questions piecemeal but I can see this turning into a very long, drawn out and pointless exercise with yourself. So, all I will say is you can defend Orchard Park all you like but it will always be a tarnished development. Still, at least there's one resident who lives there who's happy.

  9. Idleness is nothing new, it's been going in a recorded form since biblical times. The problem we have at the moment is the career dolites, I know many from the estate I grew up on (the stories I could tell you'd struggle to believe as being true). They're the ones who are usually the problem in terms of crime and antisocial behaviour and they're now mingling with the workers in greater numbers and this is causing the Daily Wail resentment. We don't just read about the problems, it's now the norm for many to have to live with them.

    How do we sort it all out? Well, we could do what we always used to do and have rolling campaigns of large scale ground wars for Queen and Country, involving hordes of poor bloody infantry or as saner people here have suggested you've got to give them a bit of carrot and stick to work. Those who have no intention of working will never, ever, work. Those that need a bit of an incentive should get one.

  10. @nwarren - Not being funny but do you have a house/flat you're trying to ditch in Orchard Park given the amount of "pro Orchard Park " posts you've been doing? Or are you attempting to kid yourself that you've got a bargain in a good area? You only have to skim the local rags to see just how bad Orchard Park is in terms of vandalism, antisocial behaviour and crime. This is before we even start discussing the location of said estate to crack dens in Arbury and all the fun and games that brings.

    Also I believe none of Orchard Park is adopted by the Council and probably won't be due to a number of issues on the highway and with the street lights. Again, this was all covered in detail in the local rags a while ago because kids were vandalising the street lights and they weren't being repaired because they're not owned by the Council and the developer couldn't be bothered. This in turn caused antisocial behaviour to rocket.

    All in all I wouldn't take a free house there as I enjoy a peaceful life with sleep.

    Edit: If a plus point for Orchard Park is it being on the Guided Bus route then when that happens (I'm sure it'll be running this year) would it not make sense to live in a nicer environment, get a bigger house for the same money, and live further out on the route?

    Btw, how's the Traveller encampment there doing?

  11. Turning off street lights will save money but it's a tiny splash in the ocean. E.g. In terms of tax for a county you're looking at around 60p per year per person for all street lights in urban and A/B roads. That's pretty good value when you take into account the cost of maintenance, replacement and energy costs!

    As for lights being on during the day, they're faulty (street lights have photoelectric cells on the tops of the lanterns, birds sit on the lanterns and crap on the cells so the lamps switch on) so report them to your local Council.

    With regard to crime there is no proof that street lighting reduces crime.

  12. I think though the move to iPods and mp3s 'devalues' music - it loses its tangibility. There is perhaps a modern tendency to hear music rather than listen to it.

    That's very much the case.

    I do believe it is important that creativity is rewarded and not ripped off... and is therefore encouraged.

    It's not just about the money, as a creator its more about being able to retain control over your creation. Obviously money means you can buy better equipment, afford more studio time, etc etc.

    As someone who has written songs and done some recording, it would be nice to make some money out of them, though I'd be happy to be appreciated (not be laughed at) or to touch people. So instead of these little gems :lol: doing nothing, I shall be testing the water on YouTube in the near future!

    My only advice is don't put anything out into the public domain if you're not comfortable with criticism. You can be the best musician on the planet and somebody will sl*g you off at some point in detail.

    Has anyone done this? Does anyone know of any pitfalls to putting original music on YT and the issue of copyright and ownership?

    If you want to know all of the in's and out's then PM me as it's a bit too big a topic to discuss here and we'll go well off topic.

    This is the big change: the opportunity to be out there and to maybe be discovered or at least heard. It is possible to have success with a little 'niche' audience; making it big in the biz with the suits and hangers on is probably a different story.

    People define success differently to each other. For some it's the cliche of playing arena's, snorting coke of a groupies t*ts and having more money than God. For others it's just having their music appreciated and earning a bit of cash that can be re-invested into their band.

    Probably more because for something to be "big" it has to be populist, dollar chasing pap which, some people, would see as being everything art shouldn't be. Especially something as historically revolutionary and socially influential as music.

    Bands can get big and still churn out predominantely good music. Led Zepplin and Iron Maiden spring immediately to mind on that one.

  13. I noticed that in a recent article Stephen Fry was arguing in favour of free downloading of creative works. Why shouldn't I just walk into Waterstones and help myself to a pile of his books - he can afford it and so can his publishers?

    This is another thing that amuses me no end. It's always very easy to proclaim everything should be free when you've

    made your money and have a name that sells anyway. It's always used by those who people are forgetting so a quick "I think everything should be free! I'm in it for the art!" statement in the press always garners a lot of positive publicity.

    If you just want to listen to grime or garage or garageband indie then sure it can be produced for a relatively modest sum by amateurs. Any high end recordings need to be produced recorded and played by professionals (i.e. people who want paying for their efforts just like you in your job).

    The problem here is that people (the punters) will, and do, complain that they are entitled to steal this form of music because it doesn't sound polished enough for them.

    If you stop paying people to write and innovate they'll stop and you'll just end up with few amateur weekend guitar heros, vanity novelists and the odd crack pot inventor in his potting shed who does it for a laugh.I would suggest that we'll all be the poorer for a lack of IP protection both culturally and in terms of tax revenues.

    Absolutely.

    As Dr Johnson wrote"No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."

    I agree to a point. I think that initially many are just impressed that they could write a complete novel and that a handful of people online downloaded it and read it and enjoyed it, but novelty that wears off quickly and they want more people to read their books. If people think the music industry is cut-throat you should see what it's like getting a book published.

    Don't get me wrong, if people do want to give their books, music, whatever for free then, hey, it's their choice. If they do well doing it all off their own back then power to them.

  14. As hard in the digital age as in the days of saving up for second-hand instruments and amps, hawking your own limited pressing 45's around market stalls etc?

    I love suggestions like this because it's very punk ethic which sounds great in it's own way but the reality is that you'll spend your life selling ****** all copies and playing to small gigs for the rest of your life.

    Getting decent CD's pressed is extremely cheap nowadays, there are plenty of decent sites out there that you can sell your product at 320kbps MP3 or WAV format very easily. So why do bands still want to get signed? Quite simply because bands do not get BIG without major label backing. Sure plenty of bands can end up in London pulling a regular 500-1000 punters, have a decent small deal, regular indie press coverage but that's about as far as they'll get. Of course, some bands are just crap full stop and will never get beyond playing to the bar staff in some pit on a Wednesday evening.

    As I said earlier, you have to view major label backing as getting a decent small business loan with plenty of people to help you succeed. Remember, punk itself only got big with major labels behind it.

    I'm always constantly amazed at the levels of self justification people have to throw around to make themselves feel better for being thieves. They'll argue the most *minute* levels of detail with half baked ideas they've read on a piracy forum with absolutely no idea how the industry works let alone the actual legalities and after pages of counter discussion it always ends up with the pirates saying that they steal music either "because they can", "try and stop me" or "everything should be free" (you first with your CC details please). Of course the industry doesn't help itself by making the whole process behind the scenes being very secretive about it all and selling this "bling" lifestyle to people that doesn't actually exist.

    Plenty of bands do get big and I wonder who is actually buying that crap, but we're not all going to like the same music the same way we don't all like the same TV progammes, cars, etc etc. To argue that just because you don't like a few chart acts the whole industry should collapse is just childish. Personally, I think that Lily Allen is an overrated pub singer but that's just my view.

    Finally, when a band or artist does succeed I don't get why people want to belittle the achievement. Mind you, I guess that's a very British thing to do.

  15. The thought that the business model used by the big studios could be flawed doesn't enter her little head. The idea that just perhaps giving away music free might get more people interested in your music doesn't appear to enter Lily's head.

    The thing is that all that happens is people don't buy your music. This has been argued ad nauseum for the last ten years and there's one fact, sales are down, labels don't take risks anymore signing "interesting" bands, labels are closing down as are many live venues.

    It's amazing how many people accept debt as the way forward without question.

    When you start out in the music biz you are, effectively, taking out an interest free small business loan from the label as well as hiring their teams of professionals to record and promote your wares. The label take a huge risk when signing a band. Many bands don't work out or even reach the point of having their album released.

    People download music because it's not cheap

    No. People download music because they can.

    but lowering the costs doesn't appeal to the music stars ego's as they are clearly worth the money.

    Nope. I don't see many people here working for FREE for 3-4 years building up debt on the off chance that they recoup their debt and make money to pay for the last 3-4 years of living expenses from a record they release.

    If you don't support something it goes away.

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