
Any planning application to build houses on the 14 acres of woods and farmland at Whalebones – between Wood Street and Barnet Hospital – is “highly unlikely” to be approved, says the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers.

Any planning application to build houses on the 14 acres of woods and farmland at Whalebones – between Wood Street and Barnet Hospital – is “highly unlikely” to be approved, says the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers.

Work has finally started at the Elmbank site, opposite the Arkley public house, to demolish derelict nurses’ homes that have been an eyesore for years.

A series of test pits are to be dug on land inside Wrotham Park as part of an investigation to locate the possible site a chapel that was erected to commemorate men killed in the Battle of Barnet of 1471.

Barratt London have released the first details of their plans to build up to 450 homes in and around the site of one of Barnet’s most iconic landmarks, the former headquarters of the National Institute for Medical Research on the Ridgeway, Mill Hill.
Continue reading Another historic building to be converted for housing

Visitors queued up for opening time at Barnet’s historic well house – not for a drink, but a rare chance to descend the twelve steps to see the tanks of the old physic well.

Chipping Barnet’s popular day centre for the elderly – with a waiting list for places – celebrates its 40th anniversary in June.

A joint approach is being made by local groups to try to ensure that the new office block to be built as part of the Brake Shear House redevelopment, just off Barnet High Street, includes as much affordable workspace as possible.
Continue reading Affordable workshops a priority for Brake Shear House site

Barnet’s historic physic well, visited by Samuel Pepys, will be open to the public on Saturday 19 March offering a rare chance to walk down the brick-built stairway to see the tanks filled by spring water.

A campaign is being launched to persuade English Heritage to award one of its renowned blue plaques to the Hadley Green home of the late Dame Cicely Saunders, the Barnet-born founder of the hospice movement.
Part 1 Walk 3 Section 2: Trotters Bottom to Saffron Green 31st May 2016
Continue reading Updates for ‘Rambles Round Barnet’ 31st May 2016

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.

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 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.

Seventy pupils spent six months preparing and rehearsing for a spectacular production of The Sound of Music at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School, Barnet.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.
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