News from The Barnet Society

Resident guardians who are having to leave a Victorian mansion in New Barnet that has been their home for the last five years fear for the safety of the building while a planning dispute drags on.

Critical questions about the future of the town centre will have to be addressed by Barnet Council if plans go ahead to replace much of the Spires with blocks of flats.

After being roundly refused planning permission last year and failing to get the support of the Mayor of London, developers are again inviting residents to offer ideas and opinions on fresh proposals for a massive housing scheme on the New Barnet gas works site.

Plans for the station land have been scaled back, as Nick Jones reported on 7 November. But unless more radical improvements are made, the Barnet Society will oppose them. Last August, we sent the Society’s 20-point criteria for development* to Transport for London and its developer partner Taylor Wimpey (TfL/TW).

Transport for London and developers Taylor Wimpey have reduced significantly their original plans to redevelop land in and around High Barnet station with five-storey blocks of flats. Plans have now been dropped for two of seven blocks of 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.

According to a circular being distributed around Chipping Barnet, proposals are being developed to ‘improve’ the area around High Barnet station. These will include new public space and new homes, including affordable homes.

Every Sunday this winter St Mark’s Church, Barnet Vale, becomes a night shelter for the homeless – “our contribution to helping the weakest”, says the Vicar, the Reverend Tristan Chapman.

Hertsmere Council is consulting on the possibility of building up to 2,620 new homes plus new places of work between Wrotham Park and Potters Bar, westwards as far as South Mimms and eastwards beyond M25 junction 24. This would have a huge impact on our Green Belt.

The Barnet Society welcomes the Council’s intention to restore Barnet & King George V Playing Fields, and to widen public access by providing a café with toilet facilities and play areas for children and their parents or carers.

Efforts are underway to identify and map the many alleyways and footpaths that add so much to the local landscape and help make High Barnet such an attractive place to live.

Hands-on experience in a great variety of trades, sports and occupations was all part of a careers day organised at the Pavilion School, in Chandos Avenue,Whetstone, which provides support and education for Barnet children who are outside mainstream education.

Big new housing developments such as Elmbank, opposite the Arkley public house, are changing the face of High Barnet – and plans are likely to be presented during 2018 for several more sizeable schemes.

After remaining empty and abandoned for over a year, High Barnet’s historic Brake Shear House, just off the High Street, has been brought back to life as Nightingales Emporium, a collaborative selling point for a group of artists and entrepreneurs.

Plans to replace a semi-derelict vacant shop that has blighted Union Street for many years will go a long way towards finishing off a make-over for one of High Barnet’s historic thoroughfares.

Three Barnet war memorials – at Arkley, East Barnet and Monken Hadley Common – have been given the added protection of listed building status after a review conducted by Historic England. They were each considered of sufficient special architectural or historic interest to secure Grade II listing from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

Up to forty jobs might be lost if planning permission is approved for the construction of two blocks of flats on the site of car repair workshops and other light-industrial premises at Meadow Works, midway between High Barnet and Whetstone.

Transport for London is facing concerted opposition to a proposed reduction from 15 minutes to 20 minutes in the frequency of the 384 bus from Quinta Drive, Barnet, to Cockfosters.

CHIPPING BARNET HIGH STREET – PROPOSED PEDESTRIAN IMPROVEMENTS: BARNET COUNCIL PUBLIC CONSULTATION, 28 MARCH – 20 APRIL 2017 Comments by the Barnet Society, April 2017 The Barnet Society supports the general intention of the latest Council proposals.

Graffiti daubed on walls and the sides of buildings in and around High Barnet has become an increasing eyesore in the opinion of residents who ask the Barnet Society why there has been no attempt in recent months to mount a clean-up.