News from The Barnet Society

Barnet Hospital’s first nurses’ home, now used for offices, is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its opening – just as work is underway to provide new accommodation for key nursing staff.

Residents in four roads that were hoping to be included in the new Barnet Hospital controlled parking zone have been told they may have to wait until early next year before they can be incorporated into the scheme.

A new masterplan for the future redevelopment of the Barnet Hospital site is in preparation and it does include proposals for a new multi-storey car park. Royal Free London NHS Trust has already conducted an informal pre-planning application with Barnet Council on future plans for the Wellhouse Lane site.

Forcing Barnet Hospital to build an upper deck over its car park is one option that should be considered by Barnet Council in an attempt to relieve excessive parking in nearby roads.

A group of residents campaigning to stop housing development on the Whalebones farmland are investigating several options for safeguarding one of High Barnet’s much-loved green spaces.

A long-running campaign by the Barnet Society to persuade Transport for London to run a bus service from High Barnet tube station to Barnet Hospital and the Spires shopping centre has won the support of Councillor Richard Cornelius, leader of Barnet Council.

An extension of the High Barnet controlled parking zone to impose restrictions on roads around Barnet Hospital has produced a furious response from adjoining streets that fear they will now have to accommodate many more parked cars and vans.

Contractors working on the installation of a mini-roundabout at one of High Barnet’s most hazardous road junctions have had to down tools because of an unexpected hitch with pipes for utility services. A road re-alignment at the heavily-used junction of Wellhouse Lane and Wood Street was first proposed by Barnet Council in the autumn of 2014.

Residents are being consulted about the possibility of a massive extension to High Barnet’s controlled parking zone to cope with uncontrolled off-street car parking and traffic congestion following recent expansion at Barnet Hospital.

The tenth anniversary of the poisoning with radioactive polonium of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko brings back memories for an ex-Barnet journalist who reported on the role of Barnet Hospital in the story surrounding one of London’s most alarming assassinations.

Junior doctors from Barnet Hospital spent their strike day collecting signatures in support of the British Medical Association’s petition to the Prime Minister urging the government to agree a contract that is “fair for doctors, safe for patients and provides a future for the NHS”.

One of High Barnet’s worst eyesores, the derelict former nurses’ home opposite the Arkley public house, is to be demolished to make way for a housing scheme that aims to provide approximately 100 new homes.

Chants of “Our NHS, your NHS” echoed around the Wellhouse Lane entrance to Barnet Hospital as the People’s March for the NHS passed through Barnet on its way to Edmonton.