The Grapes of Wrath & a row of cars 16 miles long

What a beautiful day. Just been out in the garden picking the last of our grapes. Completely delicious, they are too. Is there any greater and simpler pleasure in life than going into your garden, walking up to a vine and picking a lovely, ripe, juicy grape. My children know what a grape tastes like picked fresh off a vine.They know that a south west facing fence in a sheltered spot is the best location. They know that the frogspawn in our pond turns into tadpoles and that tadpoles turn into frogs, toads and newts. Due to the M1 motorway chopping a hunk of land off some old railway sidings, I've got a rather large garden for a London dwelling. I've indulged myself in it with grapes a pond, Strawberrys, raspeberry, blackberrys, a cherry tree as well as apples and pears. I'm the worlds laziest gardener and I only grow stuff that is easy. One day when I get off my butt, I'll get some loganberries and a greengage tree and maybe some plums.   Why on earth am I rambling on about all of this? What's it all got to do with the price of fish? Well this week Barnet Council was meant to make a decision on the Brent Cross development. As I said, my kids get all the things we grow and thoroughly enjoy them. Deluded fool that I am, I believe that this makes them happy. How many children raised in the thousands of Rabbit hutch homes, will get the same simple pleasure? They'll get to watch the TV, play computer games and if they are lucky a visit to a farm with the school, where they are told not to touch the animals because they'll die if they do. They'll think that Grapes come from Lidl's and that apples comes from Asda.

My concern is the way it will change the Borough of Barnet. Barnet is undoubtedly a pleasant place to live for the majority of it's residents. Generally the less desirable places to live are the ones where there is a high density of people and a complete lack of greenery. If we were undergoing a  baby boom, then I'd understand the desire to build dwellings for 60,000 new people, but we're not. There is not a skills shortage in Barnet and we have a rising unemployment rate. It is all very well claiming that the new developments will create jobs, but this is negated if they bring more people to the area. The figures I've seen indicate that far more people will be imported than the number of jobs created. This cannot be good for the existing residents

Another issue is the traffic. There is a dispute between the developers and the protestors. The developers say a mere 9,000 cars a day will be added to the streets of Cricklewood. The protestors say that it's 27,000. Do you know how long a line of 9,000 cars is (assuming it's single file). It's 16 miles long. What about 27,000 cars - that's 47 miles long. Does this sound to you as if this will be negligible.

Last of all, what sort of Barnet do we want our children to grow up in. I believe that there are already too many who don't have a garden. I think we owe it to the next generation to hand over a better Barnet, not a worse one.

Pictures  - Grapes in my Garden