News from The Barnet Society

 Scores of small businesses and traders who store goods, tools and equipment in a container yard claim their future has been totally overlooked and ignored by Transport for London in the plan to build 292 flats on land around High Barnet tube station.

The Barnet Society has seen the latest proposals for the High Barnet Station site. Designs won’t be finalised for several weeks, but not a lot has changed since the public consultation last November. This is the biggest planning issue for High Barnet since The Spires 30 years ago.

After feedback from a public exhibition in January, the Victoria Quarter housing development on the former gas works site in New Barnet has been scaled back slightly by lowering the height of the proposed blocks of flats and by making a small reduction in the number of new homes.

Plans for the station land have been scaled back, as Nick Jones reported on 7 November. But unless more radical improvements are made, the Barnet Society will oppose them. Last August, we sent the Society’s 20-point criteria for development* to Transport for London and its developer partner Taylor Wimpey (TfL/TW).

Mature trees are to be kept and the multi-storey blocks of flats to be built around High Barnet tube station have been reduced in height, but there is still to be a drastic reduction in the number of car parking spaces.

Applications to install another three super-size phone boxes with illuminated advertising panels in Barnet High Street have been turned down by Barnet Council on the grounds they would be detrimental to the character of the town centre and a potential danger to pedestrians and road users.

Transport for London and developers Taylor Wimpey have reduced significantly their original plans to redevelop land in and around High Barnet station with five-storey blocks of flats. Plans have now been dropped for two of seven blocks of flats.

A planning application (19/3949/FUL) has been submitted to build 152 new homes and a replacement artists’ and bee-keepers’ studio on the Whalebones site. This is probably the most significant proposal for Chipping Barnet for many years (unless the High Barnet Station development goes ahead).

The Council’s proposed master plan for Barnet and King George V Playing Fields, and especially its building on Barnet Playing Fields, would be a gross intrusion into the Green Belt. It would be contrary to Council, Mayor of London and Government policies. It would set a very bad precedent for future developments in the Green Belt.

A plan to convert a three-storey commercial warehouse in Moxon Street, High Barnet, into a complex of 107 self-contained studio flats has attracted a flood of hostile criticism from neighbours and nearby residents. Barnet Council’s website for planning applications registered a total of 34 objections by the closing date (27.6.2019).

Transport for London has commissioned plans for the construction of over 450 new homes on land around High Barnet underground station.

According to a circular being distributed around Chipping Barnet, proposals are being developed to ‘improve’ the area around High Barnet station. These will include new public space and new homes, including affordable homes.

A woodland walkway, a healing garden and children’s play area are among the latest proposals for inclusion in the fields and woods that make up the Whalebones estate in Wood Street, Barnet, where developers are proposing to build around 150 new homes.

A major redevelopment of Barnet playing fields in Dollis Valley could include the provision of a skate board park, children’s play areas, an outdoor gym as well as a series of new football pitches and a new community centre with indoor sports facilities.

A planning application has now been submitted to Barnet Council for a large-scale private care home for the elderly on the Marie Foster site in the heart of the Wood Street conservation area.

A highly-controversial plan to convert empty retail premises just off Barnet High Street into a house in multiple occupation with nine self-contained rooms has been withdrawn – at least for the moment.

Premier Inns have submitted a new planning application. The design has been improved since  its first scheme, rejected in July, and the Barnet Society is minded to support it. In August, Premier Inns held a public consultation on their redesign.

A new planning application is in for the Brake Shear House site. The design has good and weak points, so the Barnet Society is minded to be neutral about it. You can comment on it until Friday 7th September. Brake Shear House (No.

Residents of Chipping Close were out in force to express their continuing opposition to the construction of a 100-bed Premier Inn opposite their homes on the site of Barnet Market.

The controversial proposal to build a Premier Inn on the former Barnet Market site has been rejected by Barnet’s planning committee, against the planning officers’ advice. The three grounds for rejection have just been published, and the planning committee has explained why they believe the proposal would be detrimental to existing Chipping Close residents.