Barnet has probably more to thank the politicians and planners of the 1930s and 1940s for than any other town in north London. With protected Green Belt land on three sides, the High Barnet of today is blessed with some unrivalled countryside on our door-step.
Continue reading Green belt “critical to the health” of Barnet
Members will recall that a previous update on 11th September 2013 referred to the closure of the Totteridge Village/Lime Grove footpath in the summer of that year without any notice showing an alternative route back to the footpath.
A final decision is expected by the end of January on the extent of financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the cost of an archaeological excavation to determine the precise site of the Battle of Barnet of 1471.
A planning inspector has ordered that unauthorised timber cladding must be removed from the frontage of retail premises in the heart of the High Barnet conservation area.
Is Barnet in danger of losing another historic link with the past? The well house protecting the town’s famous physic well is looking decidedly the worse for wear.
Continue reading Barnet’s historic physic well now sad and forlorn
Like much of the south-east of England, Chipping Barnet is seeing a rapid rise in home extensions and offices being converted into flats. An easing of planning restrictions has given home-owners and property developers greater freedom. But are large home extensions an intrusion for neighbours? Will more flats instead of offices change the character of the town centre?
Ronnie Biggs, who spent the final years of his life at the Carlton Court Care Home in Bells Hill Barnet, has died at the age of 84.
He was released from jail on parole in 2009, shortly before his 80th birthday, after completing a third of the 30-year sentence that was imposed after the Great Train Robbery in August 1963.
Local residents who are against plans for tree-felling and landfill on the site of Old Fold Manor Golf Club off Hadley Green have been promised the support of the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers.
Continue reading Theresa Villiers opposes golf course landfill
After sustained pressure from local traders and community groups, Barnet Council has agreed to provide a sizeable number of free spaces for car parking close to the High Barnet town centre.
All the fun of the fair filled the High Street for the annual Barnet Christmas Fair, which many judged was the most ambitious and best supported since the event was first held twenty years ago.
Transport for London say its decision to allow Asda supermarkets to use High Barnet tube station for its click-and-collect collection service will not cause unnecessary congestion in the station approach road and car park.
Continue reading Will grocery collection add to Tube station congestion?
A planning inspector has now been appointed to consider the objections made by the Barnet Society and other local groups to the installation of unauthorised timber cladding above retail premises in Church Passage, in the heart of the High Barnet conservation area.
Continue reading Church Passage cladding: An inspector decides
Rambles Round Barnet 2 went on sale for the first time at the Christmas Fair on Sunday 1st December 2013.
It was gratifying to talk to local people who had bought Part 1 at the last Christmas Fair or, subsequently, from The Paper Shop, Waterstones or the Barnet Museum and were keen to see some more of the surrounding countryside using this new guide.
Local shops and businesses are pulling out all the stops to ensure a spectacular line-up of events and attractions for High Barnet’s annual Christmas Fair on Sunday 1st December.
Celebrations along the high streets of Britain have been few and far between in the last few years, so the official re-opening of Barnet Market after its recent make-over was just the kind of fillip local traders have been crying out for.
Hopefully the revival of the market, much strengthened by the attraction of additional stallholders, will give a much-needed boost to the Spires shopping centre and help to stem the run of retail closures.
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New steel frames for the market stalls, topped off with a smart set of awnings, gave the market a fresh look as friends, supporters and stallholders celebrated the first Saturday’s trading on the resurfaced site (9.11.2013).
At last the Friends of Barnet Market had a positive story to tell: after six years’ disruption and uncertainty the market finally had a settled site and an opportunity to rebuild the custom lost since the demolition of what was once Barnet’s cattle market.
Rarely has High Barnet been so united than in its campaign to preserve one of the town’s few remaining living links to its historic past – a market that was originally given its royal charter by King John in the 12th century.
Among those who joined the celebrations to mark the re-opening were the Chipping Barnet MP, Mrs Theresa Villiers, and leading members of the Friends of Barnet Market, the Barnet Society, Barnet Residents Association and other local groups.
Their presence was a chance to say a collective “thank you” to all those who had campaigned so steadfastly on the market’s behalf and who have done all they can to encourage customers to remain loyal to the small band of stallholders who never gave up of returning to their traditional site.
If planning approval can be obtained, Barnet Council will allow landfill to be used to re-contour a golf course at Monken Hadley over what is thought to be part of the Battle of Barnet site.
Continue reading Golf club wins first round in new Battle of Barnet
New recycling service: an eyewitness report from a Barnet Society member.
High Barnet householders have been told they should become their own recycling monitors and report back to Barnet Council on the efficiency of the new service for collecting recyclable refuse.
A plan to deposit landfill on the golf course that takes in part of the site of the Battle of Barnet has alarmed the Battlefields Trust.
Old Fold Manor Golf Club at Monken Hadley is drawing up proposals to re-landscape the 900 yard stretch of the course which runs parallel to the St Albans Road.
Several thousand properties in and around High Barnet’s conservation area have been left without any clear explanation from British Telecom as to when – if ever – their premises will get a superfast broadband connection.
Six months ago planning rules were relaxed to speed up the installation of new high-speed optical fibre broadband cabinets, but British Telecom is still telling customers that it can offer no precise timescale because of “delays agreeing cabinet locations with your local council”.
Old and new photographs of local buildings and views have been brought together in Barnet Then and Now, a new book on the local history and topography of what is now the London Borough of Barnet.
After a lengthy closure the Old Court House recreation ground has a functioning café once again.
A new tenant has reopened the business after a major refurbishment and is hoping that High Barnet will embrace the café culture that has proved so popular at Trent Park in Cockfosters and at Oak Hill Park in East Barnet.
In recent years visitors to the children’s playground, which is such a well-loved attraction at the Old Court House park, have looked in vain when hoping to purchase refreshments.
The café had presented a sorry sight, and the enclosed garden that surrounds it, was neglected and overgrown
….hoping that High Barnet will embrace the café culture that has proved so popular in other locations…
Opening 26th OctoberNow the building has been refitted, the lawns cut and the new proprietor Ms Sophia Tufail is hoping to install additional decking to extend the outside seating area.
Her long-term plans for the café include the possibility of obtaining a licence to stage outdoor events such as the occasional hire of a bouncy castle for children or perhaps small concerts in the summer months.
If planning permission can be obtained, and Barnet Council offers support, the café might be extended to include toilets for use by the public as well as customers.
Ms Tufail said that she hoped it might be possible eventually to follow the example of the Oak Hill Park café and obtain a licence to serve alcoholic drinks with meals.
The refurbished café will be officially opened by the Mayoress of Barnet Councillor Wendy Prentice on Saturday 26 October.
An application is to be made to the Heritage Lottery Fund to see if it would agree to pay for an archaeological dig to try to locate the precise site of the 1471 Battle of Barnet.
Glenn Foard, a landscape archaeologist who led the survey to determine the location of the Battle of Bosworth, would carry out the excavation on behalf of the Battlefields Trust.
Continue reading Archaeologists to find real site of Battle of Barnet
Whitings Hill is hardly likely to rival New England in the fall, but two plantations planted almost 20 years ago by the Barnet Society are now resplendent with mature trees and are presenting a vibrant display of autumn colours.
Tucked away between Quinta Drive and Mays Lane, the Whitings Hill open space might be unfamiliar to many High Barnet residents, but it is a tranquil setting and a walk to the top of the hill is highly recommended.
After a seven-week absence Barnet Market is about to return to its original site which has now been resurfaced and smartened up after a £100,000 improvement scheme.
Traders hope the first Saturday market – on 9 November – on what in years gone by was Barnet’s cattle market is the end of six years’ disruption.
Continue reading Barnet’s historic charter market back in its traditional setting
Rarely has the presence of a mechanical digger been welcomed with such enthusiasm as greeted its arrival on the site of Barnet Market, heralding the start of a long-promised and much-delayed resurfacing and improvement.
Seeing contractors working on the site after so much disappointment in the past was in itself a “terrific victory”, says Chris Smith of the Friends of Barnet Market, who has campaigned so energetically on behalf of both stallholders and shoppers.
Continue reading “Terrific victory” for Friends of Barnet Market
As part of the preparations to deliver Barnet’s new waste and recycling service, Barnet Council will be training all waste service collection staff in the week beginning the 7 October. A Press Release from Barnet Council stated today.
This means that residents will not have their recycling collected during this week while staff members get prepared for the new recycling service which starts on the 14 October.
While work is underway resurfacing Barnet Market, its temporary home is the area around the bandstand outside Waitrose supermarket at the Spires shopping centre.
Shoppers visiting the market on Saturday morning (21.9.2013) were handed leaflets announcing that at last the William Pears property group is to start its £100,000 upgrade of the site.
While work is under way resurfacing Barnet Market its temporary home will be the area around the bandstand outside the Waitrose supermarket at the Spires shopping centre.
hoppers visiting the market on Saturday morning (21.9.2013) were handed leaflets announcing that at last the William Pears property group is to start its £100,000 upgrade of the site.
A road realignment, a possible new zebra crossing and extra footpaths are being proposed at the junction of Wellhouse Lane and Wood Street to provide greater safety for both vehicles and pedestrians.
A bus terminus outside Barnet General Hospital for the 263 route – and also most recently for the 307 – has led to an even greater flow of traffic along Wellhouse Lane, and its junction with Wood Street, already busy with ambulances, has become increasingly hazardous for pedestrians including hospital outpatients and pupils at Queen Elizabeth’s Boys’ School.
Continue reading Road improvements planned at Wood Street accident black spot
Barnet residents are about to face what looks like becoming a game of musical chairs among the wheelie bins and containers which proliferate in the frontages of houses and flats across the borough.
Out go the black and blue recycling boxes . . . to be replaced as from October 14 by a blue wheelie bin for all recyclable material.
Continue reading Barnet’s multiplying wheelie bins…black, green and now blue
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