New Barnet’s new leisure centre and library – complete with a 25 metre six-lane swimming pool and a state-of-the-art gym – was opened by the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Caroline Stock
New centre for swimming and keep fit
Category: General News
School farm at Totteridge Academy
A school and community farm in a six-acre field next to Totteridge Academy is a step closer to being established after the success of a fund-raising appeal.
Plans for attracting High Street shoppers and visitors
Construction work has started on the pavement build outs in Barnet High Street – an improvement which community groups have campaigned for and which could be backed up by other measures proposed in Barnet Council’s draft growth strategy plan for the borough.
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Classic car show with a view
Barnet’s annual classic car show has a new venue this year – the vast open top deck of the NCP car park at the Spires shopping centre.
Eyesore on point of demolition
High Barnet’s long-standing blot on the landscape, the derelict nurses’ home on the Marie Foster Centre site, is finally about to be demolished.
Boosting High Barnet’s bat population
Barnet Environment Centre is planning to install three bat boxes to help increase the biodiversity of the Byng Road nature reserve.
Barnet’s knife bin for saving lives
A large bin for the safe disposal of all bladed weapons and instruments has been installed in Union Street, High Barnet, in support of the drive to curb the rise in knife crime.
Healthy walks exploring Barnet’s historical heritage
Councillor Caroline Stock, Mayor of Barnet – and the borough’s wellbeing champion – launched the first of six healthy heritage walks which are being promoted by the council to encourage exercise and an interest in historic points of interest.
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High Barnet SOS: Save Our Swifts
Swifts swooping and squealing high overhead have always been a regular sight in parts of High Barnet, but some local ornithologists fear these summer visitors are diminishing in numbers because of a lack of suitable nesting places.
Hadley Woodland Bathing
It’s 6pm on a Friday evening, the week has been a challenge, I’m tired and looking forward to the calm of the weekend and my wife asks if I would like to go for a walk in the woods.
Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice to offer state-of-the-art care
After years of fund raising, office and care staff have moved into The Ark – the new, purpose-built home of the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice which is rapidly nearing completion at the Byng Road nature reserve.
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Stop Barnet Council From Gagging Residents
The Barnet Society invites you to sign the Change.org petition below. Although the subject may seem outside our normal area of interest, it is important that we should be able to voice our concerns fully to the Council when necessary.
Kick starting High Barnet’s budding entrepreneurs
Business advice, digital training, even possible mentoring, were all on offer at the first Barnet Business Expo which attracted a wide range of potential entrepreneurs anxious for guidance on how to start up on their own.
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A fond farewell from generations of loyal customers
Customers queuing out into the street, a free donut with every purchase and champagne for the staff – a great finale for the last day of trading at Victoria Bakery, a High Barnet institution for the last 50 years.
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“Tenacity” of local publican helps other landlords
High Barnet publican Gary Murphy, landlord of The Mitre for the last ten years, has won a significant victory over the Pubs Code Adjudicator that he hopes will ease the financial difficulties facing many of the 15,000 landlords in England and Wales.
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Residents oppose tube station flats
Well over 100 residents attended a meeting at St Mark’s Church to launch a campaign to oppose Transport for London’s plans to build up to seven blocks of flats providing 450 new homes on land around High Barnet tube station.
Barnet is now London’s go-to medieval festival
Barnet’s second medieval festival proved such a success that the organisers are confident they have laid the foundations for an annual event that could become London’s top attraction for Wars of the Roses military re-enactors and enthusiasts.
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Battle painting unveiled at Spires’ celebration
A new oil painting depicting the 1471 Battle of Barnet by local painter Keith West was unveiled in the Barnet Museum shop in the Spires – one of the events being held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of High Barnet’s shopping centre.
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Surplus flowers don’t go to waste
A pioneering New Barnet project for re-using supermarket flowers that have passed their sell-by dates is hoping to secure Lottery funding to expand its work teaching flower arranging to young offenders and residents at care homes.
Farming experience for Totteridge Academy
A school farm to be established in a 5.8 acre-field next to Totteridge Academy, in Barnet Lane, is to start off with a mini flock of Shetland sheep and several beehives.
Soloists past and present at QE Girls’ service
Among the highlights at the annual commemoration day service for Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School were vocals by one of the youngest pupils and another by a past student whose musical training in Barnet inspired her to become an accomplished soprano.
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New Barnet campaign to save community hub
Residents of the New Bevan housing estate in New Barnet face a daunting race against time to try to raise enough money to save a much-used meeting room and children’s play area.
Learning more about dementia and palliative care
An education programme aimed at widening public understanding of dementia and palliative care is being offered by the North London Hospice over the next 12 months and includes a summer school for teenagers who might be thinking of a career in medicine, nursing or health and social care.
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Greater choice for High Barnet school children
Working together with other local primary and secondary schools and welcoming the involvement of community groups are among the key objectives of Aishling Ryan, newly-appointed principal of Barnet Ark Pioneer Academy which opens in September with its first intake of 180 pupils.
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Physic Well visitors rekindle childhood memories
Several visitors at the first open day of the refurbished Barnet Physic Well fulfilled a lifetime’s ambition to descend the steps to see how the underground well chamber might have appeared when the renowned diarist Samuel Pepys drank its water in the 1660s.
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Starring roles for former Barnet schoolgirl
After-school drama classes at the Bull Theatre provided an all-important source of inspiration for a Barnet schoolgirl who is now starring in musical comedy productions that have regularly sold out at the annual Edinburgh Festival.
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Months more traffic disruption at Monken Hadley
Thames Water are warning that it will probably be the end of July before there is a final end to the roadworks that have led to road closures and restrictions on traffic passing through the historic village of Monken Hadley.
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Granite sculpture divides opinion
An alcove in front of Chipping Barnet library has been chosen as the potential site of a large granite sculpture, depicting a family of four, by Finchley sculptor Drew Edwards.
When I Grow Up idea wins business award
A business plan for opening a combined space for a children’s play area and community activities in Barnet High Street has won this year’s Entrepreneurial Barnet Competition.
Coats of arms the length of Barnet High Street
Twice as many Wars of the Roses heraldic banners will be hung from lamp standards along Barnet High Street this summer – just one of the attractions planned to commemorate the Battle of Barnet, and to promote a repeat of last year’s highly-successful Barnet Medieval Festival.
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