Barnet

Overview

With an estimated 18981 LGBT people and 514 same-sex households according to 2001 census information, Barnet has the nth largest population across the capital. There are 21 wards in Barnet, including Brunswick Park, Burnt Oak, Childs Hill, Colindale, Coppetts, East Finchley, East Barnet, Edgware, Finchley Church End, Garden Suburb, Golders Green, Hale, Hendon, High Barnet, Mill Hill, Oakleigh, Totteridge, Underhill, West Finchley, West Hendon and Woodhouse.

Political make-up

Barnet is a Conservative-controlled council, with 39 of its 63 councillors elected from the Conservative party. The largest opposition party is the Labour party, 21 councillors. Anthony Finn is the Mayor of Barnet for te year 2010-2011, elected by councillors. Lynne Hillan is the leader of the Council.

There are three members of parliament for the borough of Barnet; Theresa Villiers, Conservative, for the Chipping Barnet constituency, Matthew Offord, Conservative, for the Hendon constituency and openly gay Mike Freer, the Conservative former leader of Barnet Council MP for Finchley and Golders Green.

Equality and Diversity

Barnet’s most recent Equality Scheme was published in 2007 and covers the period of 2007 – 2011. It concentrates on race, gender and disability equality though does reference LGBT by highlighting the work of the Barnet LGBT Network with the local LGBT community to increase third party reporting of hate crime.

Metropolitan Police Liaison

The Metropolitan Police Service has LGBT liaison contacts in every borough to assist London’s LGBT communities. In Barnet Sergeant Adrian Ball can be contacted on 020 7161 9010.

Health services and information

NHS Barnet is the Primary Care Trust operating across the Barnet area. Dipen Rajyaguru is Health Equality & Diversity Specialist and can be contacted on 020 8937 7709 or by email at: dipen.rajyaguru@barnet-pct.nhs.uk.