Over the last 18 months, Sadiq Khan has been consulting Londoners about aspects of a new London Plan. It sets a framework for local plans across London.
Unless Barnet produces more detailed plans or policies for Chipping Barnet, therefore, all developers need to do to get planning permission is to show that their proposal meets the London Plan – which is mainly a set of aspirations rather than specific design requirements.
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.
Continue reading Why no upper deck for Barnet Hospital car park?
A deep, sometimes noisy divide opened up at the Barnet Society’s election hustings over a wide range of contentious local issues including the need for affordable housing, concern over an increasing number of empty homes, the outsourcing of services to Capita and the demand for free town centre parking.
Continue reading Council election candidates go head to head
A campaign has been launched to restore to full use Hadley Green’s historic water fountain, an ornate structure built of pink marble, and once resplendent with a set of brass drinking cups.
Years of uncertainty about the ownership of Barnet Museum and the future of Barnet’s historic physic well have both been successfully resolved after sustained efforts by volunteers and well-wishers.
Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, Barnet, played its part in the celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Representation of People Act giving women the right to vote.
Sitting right in the middle of a typical Barnet street of Edwardian homes is an eye-catching 1960s modern house that is still lived in by the architect who had to fight long and hard against town planners reluctant to give their approval.
High Barnet’s most prominent “ghost advertisement” – high up on a side wall in the High Street – is creating quite a flurry of interest and might well be up for listing as being of historical interest.
Leading Barnet councillors and candidates will be lining up to answer residents’ questions at the Barnet Society’s Open Forum on Thursday 22 February.
Almost five years since Barnet Football Club played its last game at Underhill, its stadium off Barnet Lane is finally being demolished to make way for a 1,200-place Ark Academy secondary school.
Young mums and their babies were out in force at a protest meeting to try to force Barnet Council to abandon its decision to close the Barnet Breastfeeding Support Service – at an annual saving to the council of £75,000.
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 replica of a late medieval helmet of a kind worn by a knight or man-at-arms at the 1471 Battle of Barnet is the latest acquisition for an exhibition that is being planned at Barnet Museum to celebrate Barnet’s role in the Wars of the Roses.
The launch of Barnet’s teenage market – planned for Easter Saturday – is a step closer with the purchase of twenty stalls that will fill the bandstand area in front of the Waitrose supermarket at the Spires shopping centre.
Big new housing developments such as Elmbank, opposite the Arkley public house, are changing the face of High Barnet – and plans are likely to be presented during 2018 for several more sizeable schemes.
After remaining empty and abandoned for over a year, High Barnet’s historic Brake Shear House, just off the High Street, has been brought back to life as Nightingales Emporium, a collaborative selling point for a group of artists and entrepreneurs.
Millie the Waitrose cat, already dubbed High Barnet’s most sociable feline, has been inundated with good will messages after shoppers at the Spires were told she had recently had a pre-Christmas tummy upset after being given too much unwanted food.
Two historic cottages at the corner of Wood Street and Manor Road have revealed a secret that has been hidden for 150 years or more – and it gives a glimpse of the fashionable interior of the fine houses that once graced High Barnet.
Local residents are being urged by the Barnet Society to support a campaign to make sure historic footpaths are properly registered so as to ensure they are protected for the future as public rights of way.
A damp Sunday afternoon did little to dampen the excitement for countless children who enjoyed the traditional fun fair that has become such a popular attraction at Barnet’s annual Christmas Fayre.
A sing song going through favourites of yester-year is a highlight at a Barnet hairdressing salon when 102-year-old Greta Nellie Druce pays her weekly visit to have her hair done.
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.
Members of the Medieval Siege Society wearing armour and livery of the period laid on their display while inside the church there were talks on the history of the wider conflict – a confrontation that involved three kings, Edward IV, Henry VI and (the future) Richard III, two armies and one crown.
Isabella Henman, dressed in medieval clothing, was on hand to describe the role of the women camp followers who looked the noblemen and their armed soldiers.
Helping prepare a soldier for the battlefield requires the camp follower to know what they’re doing. It’s rather like changing a baby’s nappy….
She said the women would have done the cooking, cleaned the armour and livery, and then helped the men prepare for battle.
Her husband Kevin Henman – another member of the society – was in full armour and livery for the re-enactment.
“Helping prepare a soldier for the battlefield requires the camp follower to know what they’re doing. It’s rather like changing a baby’s nappy – there is a process to be followed,” said Ms Henman.
“So when helping put on the armour, you have to start from the feet and then go upwards, in order to make sure everything is properly in place and the livery is correct.”
Ben Godden, another member of the society, said that the noblemen often tried to reduce the number of women camp followers because they could be a drain on an army’s resources, but they did have a vital role.
He said the society was only too pleased to be helping raise awareness of the Battle of Barnet and they were looking forward to taking part in other events connected with the Battle of Barnet Project, including a medieval festival that is to be held in Barnet over the weekend of June 9 and 10, 2018.
Inside the parish church there were talks by the historian, Mike Ingram, on the “Overmighty subjects of the Wars of the Roses” and by author Nathen Amin on his recent book on the House of Beaufort.
A van producing and selling authentic Roman pizzas is helping to kick start the development of what is fast becoming a popular food court outside the Stapylton Road entrance to the Spires shopping centre.
Preparations are well underway for the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre on Sunday 3 December – including elves rehearsing their dance routines for their production, Twas the Night Before Christmas, to be staged at the Bull Theatre.
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.
Parents of children at Cromer Road Primary School, New Barnet, are launching a last-minute campaign to get votes in support of a money-raising appeal for the cost of a new roof for the school’s swimming pool.
Creating a city farm with access for volunteers and local children is one of the ideas being canvassed by Theresa Villiers, the Chipping Barnet MP, as part of her efforts to save the Whalebones open space.
Local residents raised a glass to celebrate – and wish good health — to the 250-year-old oak tree at the junction of The Meadway and Potters Road in support of the Woodland Trust’s “We Love Street Trees” campaign.
Shanly Homes, which purchased the semi-derelict Brake Shear House workshops off Barnet High Street earlier this year, has appointed new architects to review the plans for redeveloping the site.
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