March, Ely, Peterborough, Chatteris?

[LandOfConfusion]

I'm looking for somewhere I can afford (ha!), nearish to family but not too close and which offers some actual value for my life savings, so I've been looking at the Cambridgshire area. Thing is while I don't know enough about the area I do know there's usually a reason why house prices in a particular region/place are low...

I've seen nice (as in really nice, well done up) places in March, Ely, Peterbough, Wisbech and Chatteris and other than I should probably really definitely give Wisbech a miss, I'd like to know what's so bad about the other areas?

Or am I better off moving to Sheppey  () ?

[gannet59]

I live in Cambridge so can't speak with too much authority about other places except what I know from traveling. The ripples out from the overheated Cambridge market and rail link have caused Ely to expand with edge communities i.e. soulless new housing estates by the ring road! As with all rapid expansion, the local amenities and infrastructure are creaking in what has been until recently a small market town with a big cathedral. Saying that, historic centre of Ely is nice and walks near river are lovely. If you need to commute to Cambridge or London then the railway is convenient if not particularly fast. Peterborough has also expanded massively as land there is cheaper than elsewhere. The area around the Hampton  has grown  hugely and again the housing estates there are not to everyone's taste. P'boro has good road and rail links if that's what you're after. Can't say much about March, Wisbech and Chatteris except like all Fen towns they lack investment in almost everything and you have to like big skies and nothing much else! It's worth reading the local papers online to give yourself a flavour of the places and of course visiting for a weekend would give you a much better feel. Hope that helps.

[LandOfConfusion]

Hi and thanks for the reply.

I had noticed all the new estates turning up in my searches, and you're right some do look a bit soulless! But it's a hard one; many of the home homes there are cheap, have space for parking(!) and their internal decor is to a good standard but as you've said there appears to be issues with infrastructure, the roads in particular.

Also Cambridge... Your really lucky to live there. It'd be one of my preferred places but crikey those prices are high. That market looks a bit like down here where only the rich, elderly & unemployed have a place and everyone else gets to live miles away, in tiny houses where if they're lucky they have a concrete slab as a 'garden' and roulette parking.

Still, I'll give them a look. I'm off at the end of November so I can get to see what rush hour is like with the wind and early winter rains.

Thanks again.

[Will!]

I could regale you with stories about Peterboghorror and Wisbekistan, but these are more objective:

https://www.police.uk

http://datashine.org.uk/

[LandOfConfusion]

42 minutes ago, Will! said:

I could regale you with stories about Peterboghorror and Wisbekistan, but these are more objective:

Interesting. Thanks!

That crime map does look a bit concerning, although crime in Wisbech seems to lack the variety of some of the commuter parts of the SE. But then I guess anywhere cheap is going to attract that sort of person, so perhaps it's time I had another look at Sheppey's tourist board website?

[Will!]

8 minutes ago, LandOfConfusion said:

That crime map does look a bit concerning, although crime in Wisbech seems to lack the variety of some of the commuter parts of the SE.

Fun fact:  The Kray twins had a safe house in Wisbech.

[Option5]

14 minutes ago, Will! said:

Fun fact:  The Kray twins had a safe house in Wisbech.

Safe house, in Wisbech, yeah right no such thing

[LandOfConfusion]

Incidentally this is one of the things which attracted me to Peterborough. Hard to believe someone would build such a nice place in a scumhole. Oh well.

[Bug16]

Ely's a nice place with good transport links but as has been pointed out there are some, erm, not to my taste modern estates (no parking, gardens and you can be seen by roughly either houses when sat in your living room, etc) on the edges of the town. Car journeys will be improved when the A142 bypass is completed (currently late summer 2018). Wisbech and Chatteris are a bit too "local" for me. I have friends who live in March and I quite like the place. The downside of March is if you have to get to Cambridge or London the trains are quite limited compared to Ely (IIRC the last train to March from Cambridge is 20:30) and you're roughly 30 minutes further out than Ely to Cambridge by car.

[LandOfConfusion]

Thanks for the reply. I have some relatives who were looking at retiring to Ely so that might be a winner.

It's also good to know Ely is at least fairly well connected, or at least better connected than the road-shaped car park we have around here, and the tech job market in Cambridge seems quite good so hopefully I'll get lucky.