Anyone live in Nottingham or have advice on living there?

Hi,
 I was wondering if anyone here lives in Nottingham or has any advice on what areas to avoid living in.  My husband and I were going to live in either Manchester or Nottingham but after finding out there are many areas to avoid in Manchester, we thought Nottingham might be a better choice.

We don't know the area at all but we thought it would be easy enough to find jobs since I read it was ranked 9th in the country for jobs.  I'd really like to hear from someone who actually lives there or knows the place though.  Is it easy to get work and a decent place to rent from?  We can only afford 350 max for rent.  I've seen quite a few places for that price in Worksop but don't know if that's a place to avoid.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  Many thanks!!! 

Hi there Jessica

A few points to feedback to you from your post there!

1. There are 'many places to avoid' in EVERY town and city, and not just in the UK but worldwide! - It's an incorrect assumption or statement to say 'you need to avoid an area becuase of the areas you've heard about are bad' - Manchester has MORE better areas to live in that bad, same goes for any other town or city. Is it fair for example to say 'avoid living in Detroit because there's many bad areas'? - no, I have family who live in the outskirts of Detroit and their areas were extremely nice and safe!

2. I know people who live in Nottingham, been there all their lives too - it IS a nice place, and yes there are certain areas to avoid and yes it has had some negative aspects due to gun crime recently, but in the general picture of things you dont have to worry about that.

3. Manchester has more opportunity than Nottingham- it's a much larger city! You don't mention what kind of jobs you are looking for and in which industy or sector, but if you can change locations from Macnhester to Nottingham just like that, maybe some reseacrch into the best places overall in the UK to go for those jobs?

Have a look at upmystreet.co.uk and rightmove.co.uk for getting more information.

Hope this helps !

Cheers DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Cheers Dennis for the feedback.  I guess I probably should have stated what I found to be an area to avoid.  I totally agree with what you are saying though.  I'm looking more in terms of crime rate.  We have a toddler and I don't want us moving to a place where I don't feel safe taking him out in.  That's why I would rather like a personal point of view.  I have lived is supposed "bad" areas before and I didn't think they were all that bad.

I have looked at upmystreet and it seems like Nottingham has less crime than Manchester so that's why we've focused a bit more on Nottingham instead.  I realize though that without personal experience you can't really judge the place so I guess that is why I was wondering if anyone could offer up some advice.

I guess in terms of Manchester I know someone who lives in the northern area and they said to avoid it like the plague so that's got me to think of moving elsewhere.

  I am a bit worried about the job aspect though.  I realize Manchester would probably have more opportunity.  We don't have any specific areas of employment that we are looking into.  I have a degree in Medical Coding but I have to wait a year when our son attends school to be able to work and my husband has previous experience in construction work but he will take any job available really that will pay the bills.  So I guess we are pretty open.  We do need to be within a reasonable distance from Stoke-On-Trent though (that's where his family is at) so that's why we were looking at larger cities around that area.

Thanks so much for your advice though   I really appreciate it!

I lived in Manchester for 9 months and really, it's fine!  It's like any city- there's a few areas you definitely want to stay out of (which do not encompass any major shopping areas or the city centre), and areas that you would feel completely safe going out and about with your toddler (which is, pretty much the rest of the city).  And there's loads of different suburbs and villages around Manchester if you want to get out of the city but still have access to the metro area for jobs and such.