The Rookie said:
This £250 bike gets a good review
My mate had a Carrera bike and he thought it was fine. So fine in fact that he upgraded just about every part on it! ;0)
To be honest, if you must buy a brand new bike for £250 then I'm sure you could do a lot worse. One thing I would say is that
Halfords sell off their bikes at a big discount quite often. If you can hang off you'll maybe get the bike for a good price.
Also, try not to let the children who work in Halfords damage too many parts of your new bike whilst they're nailing it together!