Willow Grove, MK42

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

Willow Grove is a quiet area with green spaces, play grounds and schools nearby. It is great for families with kids and everyone who likes running or cycling or dog walkers. People here are very friendly and stop just to say hello or have a chat. Everyone is very helpful, including posties and delivery drivers. Southern Cross, where we live, is very quiet street right now. The only time you see your neighbours is the morning when we all take our kids to nurseries/schools. Throughout the day you see a few dog walkers and delivery vans. At the weekends there are more families with small kids walking, cycling or spending time in the playgrounds. There is a construction site at the west end of the street, so we expect to be busier in the future, once the new homes are finished and the road opened to connect this part of Wixams to the new Town Centre and railway station. However, the houses on our side of the street have car park along it with a green space in front, so we don't think the traffic will bother us in the future too much. There are no local shops, restaurants, gyms, GP etc. as it is still in development. However, there are approved plans for a Town Centre, which will have all the above. There are 4 schools nearby: Willow Grove Primary School, Wixams Tree Primary & Secondary Academies, Lakeview Primary School. There is no train station at the moment but a new one is being built which will provide service by Thameslink to/from Bedford. This service runs to Luton Airport, St. Pancras International, Gatwick Airport and Brighton. The nearest railway stations are in Bedford and Flitwick, which have facilities for parking cars and bicycles. There is a bus service provided by Stagecoach. Their bus MK1 goes from Bedford via Luton Station and Airport to Milton Keynes and back. There are two bus stops in Wixams: Southern Cross and Dove Lane. However, the service is not frequent, ranges from every 40 minutes to 1 hour. The closest shopping centre is The Interchange Retail Park in Kempston MK42 7AZ. There are: Boots, Superdrug, TK Maxx, The Range, Next, Pets at Home, Dreams, ScS, Nando's, KFC, McDonald's, Burger King, Costa Coffee, M&S Food Hall and a gym. For now, the nearest GP Surgeries are in Kempston. There are 4 of them there.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

Our property manager responded quickly to all our queries, comments and issues.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I think we had a very good idea what to expect before moving in, so there is actually only one thing which surprised us. The address of our home is so new that it doesn't exist on Google Maps and other databases used by delivery companies, which causes delay with deliveries or even makes it impossible. We literally had to add our house number to Royal Mail system, because it didn't exist. Local posties know the area very well, so they didn't have problems to find us, but companies using their service couldn't find our address, so they were saying items couldn't be delivered to us. We've been adding the address patiently for the last two weeks and it seems to be better now. Maybe a good solution for the future would be adding new addresses before tenants move in.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

The range of shops in the area is quite limited. At the moment, we only have a Co-op, which tends to be expensive. It would be great to have an additional store, like a Tesco Express, to provide more affordable options. I don’t have any issues with traffic noise currently. However, I do have some concerns about the potential increase in traffic once the new houses at the bottom of the road are completed and Southern Cross is opened all the way through. I really love the location of my home, and the neighbors are very friendly — it’s a lovely community. I’ve had no problems with parking. Bin collections haven’t been great in the past, but they are improving.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

The management have addressed my issues, however I am still waiting on a few responses.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

I wish I had known more about using Allsop as a landlord, as the process seemed slightly different from the standard rental experience. There was no holding deposit or contract provided until around 4–5 days before I received the keys, which felt quite last-minute and uncertain. As someone who had never rented before, this may partly be due to my own lack of knowledge about the rental market. However, clearer communication and earlier documentation would have helped ease the process and set expectations better.

Please tell us about the good and bad aspects of living in your local area:

The house is perfectly situated, not too far from main roads but far enough away to be a quiet, safe space to live with my children. Close to parks, a local shop and amenities.

How has the building management responded to any problems or issues you have raised:

It was unfortunate that my broadband installation had faults and I struggled to get access to my broadband which took several calls, an engineer and a 16 day wait to resolve. Exasperated as I work from home and we had no signal in Wixams to even use data, so that was a particularly painful element to the house move. I can't fault our property manager who has been very attentive but she relied on external parties and we've had challenges booking and receiving resolution with cleaning, electrical issues and snagging. We didn't have any front door keys for two weeks but they were found in the end.

Please share one thing (or more) which you wish you had known before you moved in:

Don't assume the broadband works (I'm sure it does for most people) - have a back up plan if you're dependent on it as you're unlikely to get any signal in Wixams.