Author: Nick Jones

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High Barnet’s broadband fiasco

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”.

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Old Court House Café reopens

The Old Court House Café in the recreational grounds

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.

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Archaeologists to find real site of Battle of Barnet

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.

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Barnet in the fall: visit Whitings Hill

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.

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Barnet’s historic charter market back in its traditional setting

The market previously – now reopen

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.

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“Terrific victory” for Friends of Barnet Market

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.

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No recycling w/c 7th October

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.

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Temporary home for Barnet Market

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.

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At Last! Barnet Market improvements

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.

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Road improvements planned at Wood Street accident black spot

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.

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Barnet’s multiplying wheelie bins…black, green and now blue

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.

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Chaotic approach to High Barnet tube

Reorganise chaotic approach to High Barnet tube station to provide space for a bus service direct to the Spires and Barnet Hospital – plea by the Barnet Society.

Transport for London is being urged by the Barnet Society to carry out a full investigation into the possibility of running a bus service from High Barnet tube station to the Spires shopping centre and then on to Barnet General Hospital.

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Barnet Council to change decision process

The council is proposing to change the way that decisions are taken and introduce a Committee System form of governance.   Barnet are currently operating an Executive System of governance. 

Under this system, the majority of decisions in the council are taken by the single-party Executive (or Cabinet) either in the Cabinet meeting or by individual Cabinet Members.

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Council enforcement notice on ‘Swiss Chalet’

After a rising chorus of protest from local community and residential groups, Barnet Council has finally issued an enforcement notice requiring the removal of timber cladding to the frontage of a former cafe and shop in Church Passage, just off the High Street.

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Barnet’s derelict NHS buildings: Same tired excuses

In the two years since the Barnet Society began protesting about derelict NHS buildings nothing has changed. The abandoned Marie Foster Home in Wood Street is still an eyesore, and so is the fire-ravaged former nurses’ home at Arkley.

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New owner for the Spires Shopping Centre

A fresh start for retailing in Chipping Barnet: the Spires shopping centre has been purchased by the William Pears Group, one of Britain’s biggest privately-owned property groups which keeps a low profile but has its roots in north London.  Contracts have been exchanged and the sale of the shopping centre by UBS Triton is due to be completed by late April.

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Saving the Red Cross building: Mission nearly accomplished!

Restoring and putting to good use Barnet’s rich heritage of historic buildings has become an increasingly challenging task which makes the story behind the project to preserve and re-open the former Red Cross building in St Albans’ Road all the more remarkable.  Ten years ago the Red Cross indicated that it intended to vacate what had once been Christ Church School and put the 169-year-old flint-faced building on the market.

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