News from The Barnet Society

A Service of Remembrance on Armistice Day for pupils at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School included a choral tribute by the school choir.

Above is the Green Belt north of the M25 with St Albans in the distance. Hertsmere Borough Council proposes to build a new 5,000-home township, Bowmans Cross, on much of this land. It’s just one of many developments close to Barnet in Hertsmere’s draft Local Plan for 2026-41. You have until 17th November to submit your views on the planning application for Bowmans Cross, and until the 19th on the Local Plan.

Plans are being prepared for a second multi-million-pound data centre to be built north of High Barnet on green belt farmland beside the M25 motorway.

In a break with tradition a service of commemoration was held beside the war memorial at Barnet parish church after the ceremonial wreath laying on Remembrance Sunday.

Alice and Michael Kentish hope a micro gallery at their traditional sweetshop Hopscotch will provide the town’s artistic community with some much-needed exhibition space. Artists and creative groups will be able to take advantage of what Alice Kentish (above) says is their strongly held wish to find ways to help inspire and encourage creativity.

A large expanse of green belt woodland and fields at Arkley – which is being held as a multi-million-pound landbank for possible future housing – is attracting heightened interest from developers. Contractors have painted blue marks on a long line of trees in one 25-acre plot.

Hunting for an NHS dental appointment is a task which should become easier thanks to software developed by a High Barnet dentist with the aim of matching patients with practices which have spare capacity.

Stonehouse Pizza and Carvery has ceased trading at the Red Lion in High Barnet. A drinks service will continue until the pub’s owners Mitchells and Butler complete the hand over to new tenants.

An urgent appeal is being made for commercial sponsorship towards staging the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre on Sunday 6 December to help pay a £4,700 bill to cover the cost of traffic diversions.

Barnet Council’s question and answer session on tackling a £200 million budget shortfall gave every indication that a switch from weekly to fortnightly bin collections is almost certain. Councillor Alan Schneiderman, cabinet member for the environment, told callers the saving would be substantial and would bring Barnet into line with most local authorities.

Some residents in roads around Queen Elizabeth’s Boys School have registered objections with Barnet Council over an application to construct a new multi-use sports hall. They fear the four-storey building will dominate the area and generate added traffic congestion.

High praise for entries at this year’s annual exhibition was another boost for the Barnet Guild of Artists as members await the completion of their new purpose-built studio.

The land in Arkley’s Green Belt illustrated above is a Site of Borough Importance for Nature Conservation and a Tree Preservation Zone, and until unlawfully cleared of trees last February was a pretty place to walk. A planning application has since been submitted for 12 travellers caravan pitches on it. You have until Thursday 29 October to submit your comments on the application.

As Barnet Council starts to consider numerous bids to buy the derelict former Quinta Youth Club in Mays Lane, the residents’ association for the neighbourhood has appealed for the building to be returned to community use rather than go to the highest bidder.

Concern about threats to the green belt and the loss of popular open spaces dominated a question-and-answer session held at the annual meeting of Barnet Residents Association.

A second High Barnet public house, The Sebright Arms, in Alston Road, is getting a new lease of life after another successful community-inspired bid to take over the tenancy.

Early next year volunteers aim to start planting what is destined to become a community orchard in Underhill situated in a corner of Barnet Playing Fields, between Ark Pioneer Academy and Grasvenor Avenue.

All the stresses and strains – and sometimes laughter – of everyday life in Barnet during the Second World War are captured in an imaginative and often poignant production at The Bull Theatre.

Ark Pioneer Academy, which was established in 2019, has achieved the all-important milestone of seeing a high proportion of its first intake of sixth formers going on to further study at some of the country’s top universities.

Barnet Council’s Labour controlled cabinet has been accused by Conservative councillors of “skirting around” the need to come clean with residents about what is almost certain to be a massive hike in council tax next year.