"Cambridge and Leeds are two of the best places for children to grow up, while Northampton is one of the worst, according to a report out today. Researchers looked at factors such as school results, leisure centre facilities and the number of parks to rank areas for child-friendliness."

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_ne...224672,00.html

So now you know!

I always knew Cambridge was a great place (home!!!) - would go back in a heartbeat if I could!

We loved Cambridge....visited a couple of times...my sister-in-law lived in a lovely village.....they moved to be nearer their businesses in London..they now live in Kent..so we get to visit some lovely places....if I remember they had not long discovered an Iron Age settlement in the area.....been to Canberra to (our son played Football...(soccer) for W.A in a tournament there) we had a great time...even went to the snow fields...Perisher Blue...but would still prefer Cambridge...I love the heritage.....
Jackie who is now going to get some much needed beauty sleep...

Cambridge would be great but think you need to have loads of dosh to get on the housing market there!
Leeds? Really do NOT understand that one at all!

I often wonder why people would leave such beautiful places as Cambridge to live in oz? I'm afraid I've seen nowhere in oz that can compare with such beautiful places as Cambridge, Chester and York.

YES!!! i know that, me being a Leeds for life person

Bring it on

Quite right! I guess we didnt make the conscious decision to emigrate like many of you have. I married an Aussie and we lived in PNG and then in Bristol for a few years before he got offered a scholarship at ANU in Canberra. When he finished his study he got a job with the government, I got a job in education and we just sort of drifted on and stayed here. Had I known then what I know now, I am not so sure that I would have suggested taking the direction that we did. In those days we were footloose and fancy free and would have gone wherever the mood took us. Moving to PNG and then back to UK and then on to Aus was just one of those things we did - took it all in our stride really, grabbed the chances when they were available.

I am an only child and my parents have a house in a village just outside Cambridge and (hopefully many years from now) I will inherit that one day. It isnt the village I grew up in and I would dearly love to go back to the place I grew up in but houses, even the tiniest, start at nearly $500,000 so that aint going to happen!

To marry someone who likes Oz ... to experience something different ... to want more space for your money?

Would add ... to escape the incessant 365 days a year tourists, to live somewhere where you can park outside your house without it getting towed away, to live somewhere where it's not easier to buy a chic 10 grand modernist sofa than it is a pint of milk. I lived in Bath for 10 years - love the place - but until they tell the tourists to **** off and all the London nonces who jacked house prices up by 500% are sent back to Primrose Hill - I wouldn't live there again.

Was in Bath 2yrs ago visiting a friend, the traffic there was just like the gold coast.

Something different is fine but space for your money I'm not to sure. Suburbs are built one on top of the other these days, you would have to go bush for some space.

I like Northampton. My brother lives in a sweet little village there and we've spent many a w/e in Northant's with him and his wife. Been to some beautiful parks with the children and their 2 dogs, spent time shopping and going out on the town in the evening, so know it quite well. I know there is a shortage of secondary education places, but that's because the huge new housing estates around Northant's weren't exactly planned with any forward thinking I expect.

I'm not keen on outer Cambridge, places like Bar Hill are just horrid, but Cambridge Town itself is nice.

3 and a half acres within an hour of the CBD for $300,000 bought a year ago sounds like a fair deal to me.

Except that many of the roads in Bath (and in the other afore-mentioned cities) were originally designed for oxon and cart, not 24 wheel articulated Sainsburys lorries. I know Cambridge well too, being from North Herts, and it's every bit as bad. The traffic planners solution in both cases was a one-way system so complicated that Lord Lucan is still circling inner-Cambridge. Like I say - I think Cambridge and Bath are great cities - but liveable? I think not.

My youngest son lives in Cambridge.

I was brought up in Oxford which is also a lovely place.

G