Stapleford is good, North Weald is even better
I trained at Stapleford - PPL + IMC. It is a good airfield with hard surface on part of one runway - gets affected by long and heavy rain but not to a point of closing down. Mind you, its main focus is "zero-to-hero" training so being a PPL and a paying customer, the last thing you should expect is being treated like a paying customer. I go there only when I have to (e.g. want to practice flying with Garmin GNS-430 in G-PJCC).
4 miles to the north is North Weald with two hard runways, main is 1800(ish) metres long. I joined the North Weald Flying Group, who charge £65/month for membership (more than at Stapleford), and have a C150, four C172s and an Archer II, at £98.50, £125 and £145 per tacho hour, respectively. Depending on your flying the tacho should tick 1 hour every 1.1 hour you fly. There is a discounted membership for C150-only hour builders as well. Apart from that you pay £160/year to the airfield itself but that gives you nil landing fees in any aircraft. Quite a bit in standing charges, I agree, you get it "back" if you fly a few hours a month.
If you fly 1 hour a month, Stapleford will work a shade better I think. Any more and you're better off at North Weald. The Stapleford fuel surcharge doesn't seem to depend on fuel prices too much and last time I flew was £7.20/h. NWFG aircraft look OK, Stapleford ones look bad (albeit properly maintained and OK mechanically).
Hope that helps,
/h88