Considering Ellenbrook (Hatfield) Vs St Albans for a move - what’s it really like day-to-day?

Hi everyone - hoping for some honest and friendly advice about the Ellenbrook area of Hatfield.

My partner and I are early 30s and currently living in London. We’re looking to move to Hertfordshire to buy a long-term home for us, our dog, and (hopefully) kids in the next few years. We’ll both be commuting into London about 3 days a week.

We’ve looked around St Albans (Fleetville). It’s lovely, but for our budget the space just isn’t there. Parking also feels tricky, and the traffic seemed pretty heavy. We’re a bit worried day-to-day driving would be a pain.

We’ve now seen a couple of houses near Ellenbrook and it looks great on paper. Loads of green space nearby for walks, close to Hatfield station, and an easy drive to St Albans and other places.

If you live there (or know it well), I’d really appreciate your thoughts on:

• What’s the area like day-to-day? Friendly? Quiet? Any issues?
• What’s the rush-hour trip to Hatfield station like? Driving/parking, bus, walking, cycling?
• Is the bus actually reliable at peak times?
• If anyone’s done the London commute from Hatfield 3x a week, what’s it really like?
• Is it a nice place to bring up kids? Any general thoughts on schools/nurseries?
• Being near the uni — does that affect the area much (noise, parking, student houses), or not really?

We also went into Hatfield town centre and it didn’t feel like somewhere we’d spend much time, but maybe we caught it on a bad day. Are there nicer spots locals recommend?

Thanks in advance — any experiences (good or bad) would be really helpful!