Gated developments - where do you stand on these?

[Cloudhopper]

Many new developments are springing up in our neighbourhood, as I imagine is happening in a lot of places. I've noticed a real trend towards gated developments and hefty security.

This is a fairly low crime area, with no commonplace vandalism or social disorder that I can detect.

I went past yet another gated estate the other day and felt a sense of alienation from the residents. Am I the sort of person they are trying to keep out?

I think that developers are just trying to maximise profit, and if gates do this and they are allowed to build them, then they will.

How does everyone else feel about having these on the doorstep? Is it an understandable reaction to increasing social alienation or is it just a reflection of the increasing stratification of our society?

i think i would rather live in a nice community than a fabulous one with a gate separating me from a crappy one

surely?

jimjams2 - yes i agree with you about the roads/traffic

saw a programme on them in the US, where established gated developments were starting to have antisocial behaviour problems themselves...

given that all new developments have to consist of at least (20%?) affordable housing (often social housing) they're not going to be very effective in terms of creating elitist ghettos are they

I don't know how developers are getting around that 20% affordable homes target, but they are somehow round here.

Round here they are given to lower paid key workers who society needs to live here but who couldn't aford to otherwise such as nurses and firefighters.

I live in a gated development. Bloody gates are always broken anyway. We just liked the house, certainly wouldn't go out to search for a gated house next time.

Having had my door kicked down by five men at 9 pm one night, with just me, my 12 yo dd and 80 yo mum in the house, I can understand the paranoia that might lead to someone living behind gates.

Our new security has cost an arm and a leg, and is way over the top, but how can I compare money to the true cost of my daughter being raped or even worse?

Peace of mind in your own home is a right - how sad that it's not automatic.

I think that if I were in your position, Jimjams, I'd definitely feel the way you do.

In my current circumstances, though, I like living in a mixed community. It is, admittedly, not an overly dangerous one - deliveries don't get stolen or anything; but it's not in a posh bit of sarfeastlunnon.

we had 2 lovely ceramic plantpots, complete with lovely plants, stolen from our front garden

but bundle, posh, rich people steal things too.

What developers sometimes do is to make an offset payment to the local authority (via a social housing provider) to get them to provide affordable housing on a different site. Sometimes they will buy 2 sites - posh on one and 100 percent keyworker/social housing on the other. One gated, one ungated.
They do try generally to argue against "pepperpotting".
Personally I am not a fan of gated developments. I don't think they do anything to promote a mixed and inclusive community. And I think large gates and high fencing can contribute to a rather uncompromising and unfriendly visual impact on the street scene.
However, developers aim to build what their paying customers want, and it seems lots of people round here value the exclusion.

On the fence....

sorry been longing to do that since I saw the title....

Doh, I just popped in to see what gated development was, I thought it must be the next big thing in child development, like flash cards.
Still, I did have a hanging basket nicked from my front wall once, and my mate in poshest Harborne had the windscreen of her car stolen, tax disc, rear view mirror & all...left her CDs though, not suprisingly, Bryan Adams et al...

When we win the lottery I have 2 houses in mind (both been on sale for ages in our local area). One is in a gated development - with pool- both were advatages I pointed out to dh./ the other has an internal courtyard (bliss- boys, toys, no chance of escape). If I was designing my ideal home now it would be single story, have an internal courtyard and be behind big gates. But we'd still have 5 locks on the front door, and hide all the other keys!

Now I think about it, I have had numerous wing mirrors knocked off, costing me 60.00 each.

We have had plants stolen from the front garden, including a hideous conifer in a plastic pot belonging to upstairs that I was quite relieved to see the back of.

Mmmm - starting to understand the attraction...

I didn't realise builders did gated developments, we must be very backward here in Scotland.