Selma I am reluctant to join in this discussion thread, as it is getting rather personal! However I wish to make 2 points about the article "Welcome to Gated Britain".
1. I quote from it "There are now more than 1,000 gated communities in England. More than 100,000 people live in them, predominantly in London and the south-east - but increasingly right across the country." London is not England, it is the capital of England, folk from abroad often tend to get the two muddled up, and as the article says, while these gated properties are predominent in the *south-east and London*, they are also beginning to crop up elsewhere i.e. not just London. So your comment below is incorrect: >I take it your driving around London is a bit limited then, since you've missed everyone of these 1,000 gated communities and your> >friend circle must be even less, if you've never come across anyone of those 100,000 people who reportedly live in them.> Driving around London only, will not help your search for gated communities if that is your leisure activity. You would need to drive around the whole of England to look for the 1,000 such communities mentioned, and not just London. Incidentally, the article actually talks about the one visited in Aldlerly Edge in Cheshire which is a long way from London, and is in Footballer Land where the residents earn so much, they live in constant fear of being robbed! Well what do they expect!! 2. The 2006 census (the most recent one) showed the population of England to be 50,762,900 (and the whole of the UK at 60,857,300). The article "Welcome to Gated Britain" states that 100,000 live in such communities. This is a mere drop in the ocean of the vastness of the total population, dont you agree? I personally think that where gated communities exist in any country, they are an urban feature, rather than a rural one. I go to London at least once a month and I know of one such property in Fulham, but then I go there mainly to get my fix of good Indian food which I am unable to get where I live! :-) On which irrevelant point....if anyone is interested Tayyabs in Fieldgate Street, Whitechapel is an excellent BYO restaurant, great food and reasonable prices. Luisa
