There is so much to consider when anyone moves; community feel, schools, shops, location, the children, their friends, your friends, job prospects for you and your children, the list is endless. There are so many reasons for moving; better neighbours, job relocation, retirement, taking it easy and so on.
Different parts of the UK have so much to offer but this piece is more personal as to what I think are the more important aspects to consider, you may agree or disagree with the title Community Feel, there is no right or wrong answer but just a perspective. Just like life in general.
Crawley in West Sussex is pleasantly located a few miles from Gatwick Airport on the M23 with Brighton a 30 minute drive to the South and Central London an hours drive, with excellent public transport links.
Crawley as a town has a great community feel, its design with several neighbourhoods each with their own local shopping parade followed by a grand central town centre. Its infrastructure and population has grown in sync with the growth of Gatwick Airport, the world most busiest single runway. It may well be a double runway by the end of the decade which would create an additional 22000 jobs in Gatwick and Crawley according to the latest estimates provided by Gatwick Diamond which means an impact on public services, property prices and so on.
Property prices has risen circa 20% in the last 18 months and it boasts one the highest employment rates in the whole of UK and third highest for wages community-feel-sussex-towns-villages
Crawley has a pleasant landscape with plenty of scope for outdoor activites be it lakes, walks, cycling, sailing, canoeing. It boasts a state of the art Sports complex K2, a place where a few nations made their training base at the 2012 London Olympics https://www.freedom-leisure.co.uk/centres/k2-crawley/news/. Traffic congestion is comparatively small compared to London is ideally located to explore the Sussex towns and villages. A 30-45 minute will comfortably to a vast array of locations. Great climate too.
A family town with a reasonable amount going on in the community from school fetes, village fairs, car boot sales to antique fairs community-feel-sussex-towns-villages .
The ability to effortlessly slip out of the town and disappear in an instant into the Sussex countryside and explore the villages and then glide back in with a similar effort amplifies the community feel Crawley enjoys.
