Planning approval has finally been given for the demolition of one of High Barnet’s worst eyesores, the derelict blocks of nurses’ homes opposite the Arkley public house.
Go ahead for 114 homes on Elmbank
Author: Nick Jones
Woodland project helps vulnerable children
A woodland project at Barnet’s centre for vulnerable and excluded school children is hoping to qualify for a £12,000 award from Tesco’s Helping Hands initiative.
Barnet Blue Badge fraud
Barnet a hot spot for lost and stolen disabled badges…but a woeful response. More blue disabled badges were lost or stolen in Barnet last year than in any other London borough, but the latest government statistics show the council’s efforts to enforce the law against misuse are way behind that of some neighbouring local authorities.
QE Girls “alive with the sound of music!”
Seventy pupils spent six months preparing and rehearsing for a spectacular production of The Sound of Music at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, Barnet.
Arkley residents against Elmbank project
SODA – Stop the Over Development of Arkley – is a new campaign group established by local residents to campaign against plans to build what they say are too many flats and houses on the Elmbank site, opposite the Arkley public house.
Right-to-buy almshouses put to rest
A question mark hanging over the future ownership of Barnet’s many historic almshouses has finally been resolved after the government gave an assurance they would not be included in the extension of the right-to-buy scheme for housing tenants.
MP steps up fight to save Whalebones
Opposition is mounting to the possibility that 14 acres of woods and farmland at Whalebones, between Wood Street and Barnet Hospital, might be zoned for housing and community use.
New site of Battle of Barnet?
Farmland to the west of Wrotham Park, alongside Kitts End Lane and the St Albans Road, is emerging as a likely site of the Battle of Barnet.
Sky reports Barnet’s broadband fiasco
High Barnet’s dire broadband service was highlighted by Sky News when it featured a campaign by a cross-party group of MPs to try to secure the break-up of British Telecom as the only way to achieve faster internet connections.
The end of Friends Reunited
The sun sets on the Barnet inspired networking site. Friends Reunited, the social networking website created in the back bedroom of a semi-detached house in Barnet, has finally closed down after being left with only “a handful” of active members.
BT finally to honour promise?
One by one, High Barnet is being provided with the additional telephone cabinets that are needed to supply fast broadband connections to around 3,000 homes in and around the town centre.
Signatures by the hundred in support of junior doctors
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”.
Continue reading Signatures by the hundred in support of junior doctors
Former choristers pay tribute to Barnet church organist and choirmaster
Maintaining the great musical tradition of Barnet parish church has been the outstanding achievement of Terence Atkins, its organist and choirmaster for the last 40 years.
Continue reading Former choristers pay tribute to Barnet church organist and choirmaster
107 bus route under threat
The future operation of the 107 bus service, which has stops in High Barnet on its route between Edgware and New Barnet, is in doubt because of a decision by Hertfordshire County Council to make further cuts in its funding for subsidised bus routes.
New environment centre almost completed
Finishing touches are being added to the newly built, eco-friendly Barnet Environment Centre in Byng Road, ready for its official opening in the spring.
What future for café gardens?
A guarded welcome has been given by the Barnet Society to plans for a £7 million upgrade for the Spires shopping centre. Barnet Council is to be asked to give planning permission for a two-storey fashion store and three new restaurants.
Concert rounds off 2015 at QE Girls
A seasonal concert that drew on the great range of musical talents at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, Barnet, rounded off the year, and also the first term of the new headteacher Mrs Violet Walker.
Spires £7 million upgrade
A two-storey, 24,000-square-foot new fashion store – replacing four existing shop units – will become the centrepiece of a new-look Spires shopping centre if planning permission is obtained from Barnet Council.
MP willing to confront bulldozers
Responding to fears about the possible zoning for housing of the woods and fields around Whalebones Park, the Chipping Barnet MP Mrs Theresa Villiers says she is ready to “lie down in front of the bulldozers” in any fight to preserve a cherished open space.
Mayor of Barnet praises Museum
Barnet Museum – and its role in leading the Battle of Barnet project – was singled out for praise by the Mayor of Barnet Councillor, Mark Shooter, when he opened the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre.
Barnet Museum plans rejected
Volunteers at Barnet Museum say they are shocked and dismayed that after months of discussion Barnet Council’s planning committee has refused to approve proposals for a rear extension and disabled access.
Whalebones trustees reassurance
Trustees for the Gwyneth Cowing estate have given an assurance to the Barnet Society that any development of Whalebones Park for residential and community use would be of “high quality” and would retain as “much natural habitat as possible”.
20 years old and growing fast
Twenty years ago this December, the first of two tree plantations was inaugurated at Whitings Hill to commemorate the Barnet Society’s 50th anniversary; the second followed in January 1996.
Whalebones Park to go for houses?
Whalebones Park, a 14-acre stretch of fields and woods between Barnet Hospital and Wood Street, is about to be considered by Barnet Council as a possible area to be developed for future housing and community use.
A Barnet business start up that changed the world
It is not well enough known that British cinema was born in Chipping Barnet 120 years ago. Moving images were then as revolutionary as virtual reality seems now.
Continue reading A Barnet business start up that changed the world
New super fast broadband for Barnet?
A possible scheme to deliver superfast broadband to High Barnet via a wireless network was greeted enthusiastically at a meeting of local residents, many of whom offered immediate pledges towards raising the £16,000 needed to fund the installation.
Gated housing planned off High Street
Plans for a five-storey block of flats and a three-storey office block are the main features of an extensive residential and commercial redevelopment that will reshape the townscape behind shops in Barnet High Street.
Rambles Round Barnet Updates Nov 2015
Barnet Fayre 2015
Over 100 stalls will line the High Street and the courtyard outside Barnet College for the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre on Sunday 6 December.
Battle of Barnet coins found
A medieval silver farthing that might have been in use at the time of the Battle of Barnet of 1471 is the most dramatic find discovered so far during searches with metal detectors on farm-land beside Kitts End Lane.
Mugs posted a comment on Time is running out for “Morty” the graffiti vandal whose tags have disfigured shops and buildings around Barnet
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Charles C posted a comment on Plans for the introduction of yet another CPZ for High Barnet has provoked furious response among Mays Lane residents