Silkash, BL5

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

We're less than a 5 minute walk from the high street, which is very convenient. There are plenty of bars, pubs, and smaller independent restaurants and cafes. Plus a Wetherspoons, which is always busy. There's an enormous retail park about 10 minutes away by car, but good shop choice within walking distance too. There is a good size park across the road with a playground, tennis courts, boules club, and net/basketball courts. Transport links are good, it's a 10 minute walk to the train station (but there's always works going on at weekends so often, there are no trains through Westhoughton or Daisy Hill) and there are lots of buses that stop on Bolton road. Our street is quiet, there are lots of families and dogs. There's a school next door so around 3pm is very busy footfall-wise on the main road, but we don't get any antisocial behaviour. Those at the mouth of the estate have had trouble with parents parking in front of their houses and using/blocking their drives during school drop off/pick up and Saturday football. Parking is fine, again the mouth of the estate has proper pavements (whereas ours are almost single-file width) so we park around the side of our house or on our driveway. Bin collections are consistent.

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

Replace the lawn as soon as you can - particularly on corner plots that are North (or part-North) facing. New build garden ground is full of clay, brick and construction rubbish. The grass is extremely sparse and has not grown properly in 2 years.

What is the best feature of your home:

High ceilings and large windows let light through even the smallest houses on the plot. This makes a huge difference to other developers who have tiny windows. Our living room is also on the back of the house, overlooking the garden, which means we aren't looked in on from the street.

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

Living on Silkash, we have everything on our doorstep quite literally. The high street is a 3 minute walk from our front door with so many great independent cafes, bars, restaurants, bakeries, delis, shops. There are some really amazing independent businesses and we very rarely go into the city centre as we have everything we need here, though if we do want to get into the city centre, there are 2 train stations again within walking distance or with park & ride car parks, with direct trains into Manchester every half an hour, taking around 25 minutes into the city centre. The street itself is very quiet, there is an A road that runs along the back of our estate but the windows and the soundproofing of the house are of such good quality that we don’t hear it. Every house has a double drive so parking is never an issue and our bin collections are always done, with fortnightly collections which is more frequent than most areas!

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

Due to the design of our row of houses, our parking spaces are away from the house and would make it very difficult to charge an electric car in the future. This isn’t the case for most of the estate though.

What is the best feature of your home:

The high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows. Also the efficiency! Our energy bills have halved but the size of our house has doubled.

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

There are some very good local shops, restaurants, bars and parks near this development. A near railway station.

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

The house is equipped with most commonly needed home appliances but without washing machine. This could be included in the new house so tenants use it from the first day.

What is the best feature of your home:

The house is well design with plenty of light come in.

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

The development is in a great location, close to the town centre which although small, has a good selection of shops/bars/restaurants. It is walking distance from the train station and close to motorway link, making it perfect for commuters. All properties have a parking space or drive and parcel box for deliveries. There are several schools in the area and also lots of greenery/woodlands. There is a park with tennis court and also a gym both within 5 minutes walk. The development is perfect for couples and families young and old.

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

Council tax banding. This got reviewed and changed to a very high band which I have had to appeal/challenge

What is the best feature of your home:

The open plan design of the house makes it bright and airy and the large floor to ceiling windows add to this and are aesthetically pleasing as well as useful in energy efficiency keeping rooms warm during the day.

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

The area is a good mix of shops, restaurants, and bars, all within walking distance. Public transport links are plentiful, but there can be delays on the trains sometimes.

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

The garden faces the national reserve, which provides a good view and privacy.

What is the best feature of your home:

The kitchen is the best part. All the cabinets that come with the house can store everything we've bought.