A decent place for all (From Times Series)

A decent place for all

1:07pm Friday 22nd January 2010

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If in some strange Life on Mars type way you were suddenly transported back 25 years into the street where I have lived for all of that time, two things, shoulder pads and big hair aside, would strike you.

Firstly, there would be a surprising lack of cars.

In 1985, there were fewer cars than households in Barnet. Twenty-five years later they seem to be taking over the borough.

Different working patterns, greater wealth and just more complex lifestyles (greater choice of schools means parents often take their children miles to school — in 1985, the likelihood was you went to the most local school) mean many households now have two or even three cars.

Secondly, you would also be struck how in 1985 the borough seemed less orientated around families. Then, my street was largely populated by elderly people, retired couples living on their own, possibly prior to moving into a retirement home of some sort.

Now my street is full of families attracted by our good schools and space — the continued protection of the Green Belt means Barnet is close to unique in London in being almost one-third green space.

Like previous generations, much of Barnet is populated by people moving from inner London in search of a more comfortable family life and a house to call their own.

But with the nature of London’s immigrant communities changing in the Sixties, so the nature of second generation communities has changed with far more people from Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities joining long-standing Jewish and Chinese communities in the borough.

What has stayed the same is the long standing respect between different communities that runs like a thread through Barnet life.

And finally, a revolution that has happened so slowly to have been almost invisible is the far more decent treatment of people with learning disabilities.

When I came into politics it was still the norm for people with such disabilities to be placed in to the public sector care.

Now, such residents of the borough are much more likely to be living indepen-dently, as well as more likely to be in employment.

There is still a long way to go on this, but while it is tempting to reflect on what we have lost, we should also note how in many ways Barnet, like Britain, has become a more tolerant and decent place for people previously left on the margins of our society.