News from The Barnet Society

Barnet Council is investigating complaints by local residents that the newly opened Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice has extended its car park to include a pedestrian grass verge along the road leading to the Byng Road environment centre, playing fields and allotments.

A Barnet Museum information sign that told the history of the coaching taverns that once lined Barnet High Street was removed within days after Barnet Council’s highways department declared it was a hazard for pedestrians.

Another three telephone boxes with illuminated advertisements are being proposed for Barnet High Street – much to the anger of residents who fear they will add to street clutter just when the pavements are being widened to make it easier for shoppers.

A packed programme of productions has been lined up for the coming months at the Bull Theatre, High Street, Barnet, to help raise £8,000 that is still outstanding for the cost of new seating.

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, officially opened the Ark in Byng Road, Barnet – the new £8.5 million state-of-the-art children’s hospice that will support children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions in north and central London and Hertsmere.

Some last-minute polishing and then bonnets were up, engines ready for inspection, as enthusiasts crowded into the basement of the Spires car park for the sixth annual show of the Barnet Classic Car Club.

New Barnet’s new leisure centre and library – complete with a 25 metre six-lane swimming pool and a state-of-the-art gym – was opened by the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Caroline Stock Two new leisure centres, one at the Victoria Recreation Ground, New Barnet, and another at Copthall, Mill Hill, which together cost £44.9 million, both opened

A school and community farm in a six-acre field next to Totteridge Academy is a step closer to being established after the success of a fund-raising appeal.

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).

Construction work has started on the pavement build outs in Barnet High Street – an improvement which community groups have campaigned for and which could be backed up by other measures proposed in Barnet Council’s draft growth strategy plan for the borough.

Barnet’s annual classic car show has a new venue this year – the vast open top deck of the NCP car park at the Spires shopping centre.

High Barnet’s long-standing blot on the landscape, the derelict nurses’ home on the Marie Foster Centre site, is finally about to be demolished.

Barnet Environment Centre is planning to install three bat boxes to help increase the biodiversity of the Byng Road nature reserve.

A large bin for the safe disposal of all bladed weapons and instruments has been installed in Union Street, High Barnet, in support of the drive to curb the rise in knife crime. “Collecting knives, saving lives” is the slogan of Word 4 Weapons, which says it is the UK’s leading weapons surrender charity.

Councillor Caroline Stock, Mayor of Barnet – and the borough’s wellbeing champion – launched the first of six healthy heritage walks which are being promoted by the council to encourage exercise and an interest in historic points of interest.

Swifts swooping and squealing high overhead have always been a regular sight in parts of High Barnet, but some local ornithologists fear these summer visitors are diminishing in numbers because of a lack of suitable nesting places.

It's 6pm on a Friday evening, the week has been a challenge, I’m tired and looking forward to the calm of the weekend and my wife asks if I would like to go for a walk in the woods.

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.

Hadley Common, thought to be the seventh largest stretch of common land in Greater London, might soon be freed from archaic legal constraints that date back over 250 years to the reign of George III.

After years of fund raising, office and care staff have moved into The Ark – the new, purpose-built home of the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice which is rapidly nearing completion at the Byng Road nature reserve.