Author: Nick Jones

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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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Barnet Football Club’s departure going ahead as planned

Barnet Football Club’s match against Wycombe Wanderers in the npower League 2 on Saturday 20 April will be the Bees’ last fixture at Barnet’s Underhill stadium. From the end of August and the start of the 2013-14 season, Barnet FC’s home fixtures will be played at the Hive Football Centre in Camrose Avenue, Edgware.

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Barnet’s town hall: an inspiring conversion

Barnet’s former town hall, opposite St John’s Church, provides a positive reminder of the imaginative uses which can be found for redundant municipal property. This iconic building has now completed three years as the home of the North London Coroner’s Court and its future seems assured.

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Barnet’s disappearing public houses

The Black Horse

The Black Horse

Like so much of the rest of the country High Barnet is losing its historic public houses at an alarming rate. The Black Horse at the junction of Wood Street and Union Street is the latest to boarded up but Punch Taverns say the closure is only temporary and the company’s “priority is to reopen the pub as soon as possible.”

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Town Centre Uplift

Church Passage
Church Passage

Some long-awaited summer sunshine in late July provided the final seal of approval for Barnet’s town centre uplift and the newly-created meeting and seating area beside St John’s Church.  Instead of a line of forbidding holly bushes there are now new walkways and benches, sweet smelling lavender in freshly formed flower beds, and an attractive beech hedge to provide some privacy.

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