News from The Barnet Society

A van producing and selling authentic Roman pizzas is helping to kick start the development of what is fast becoming a popular food court outside the Stapylton Road entrance to the Spires shopping centre.

Preparations are well underway for the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre on Sunday 3 December – including elves rehearsing their dance routines for their production, Twas the Night Before Christmas, to be staged at the Bull Theatre.

An extension of the High Barnet controlled parking zone to impose restrictions on roads around Barnet Hospital has produced a furious response from adjoining streets that fear they will now have to accommodate many more parked cars and vans.

Parents of children at Cromer Road Primary School, New Barnet, are launching a last-minute campaign to get votes in support of a money-raising appeal for the cost of a new roof for the school’s swimming pool.

Creating a city farm with access for volunteers and local children is one of the ideas being canvassed by Theresa Villiers, the Chipping Barnet MP, as part of her efforts to save the Whalebones open space.

Local residents raised a glass to celebrate – and wish good health -- to the 250-year-old oak tree at the junction of The Meadway and Potters Road in support of the Woodland Trust’s “We Love Street Trees” campaign.

Shanly Homes, which purchased the semi-derelict Brake Shear House workshops off Barnet High Street earlier this year, has appointed new architects to review the plans for redeveloping the site. Planning permission was granted to the previous owners, Wrenbridge, to build 32 flats, eight semi-detached houses and workspace for 40 or more employees.

End of an era.  Butcher’s Hook, the last remaining butcher’s shop in High Street, Barnet, has ceased trading and the premises are for sale or to let.

High Barnet’s police station will close to the public by the end of the year along with 36 other police stations across London where the Metropolitan Police is withdrawing a front counter service.

After protests from local tree lovers, Barnet Council finally called a temporary halt to trench digging and cable laying directly under a 250-year-old oak that commands the brow of the hill at the junction of The Meadway and Potters Road, New Barnet.

After being refused permission in January, Barnet Council’s planning committee has now approved plans for the proposed Ark Academy school on the site of the vacant Underhill stadium, former home of Barnet Football Club.

Unthinking council planners and contractors are being blamed by local tree lovers for hacking through the roots of 250-year-old oak by excavating a trench and building two concrete bases for broadband telephone boxes.

Workshop where students shared their experiences as part of a theatrical project to tackle cyber-bullying Two students who took part in a workshop at the Wood Street campus of  Barnet and Southgate College are to appear in a new play, Cookies, that explores the challenging world of cyber-bullying.

Record GCSE and A-level results for the second consecutive year have now been topped by the news that Queen Elizabeth Girls’ School, Barnet, has been ranked in the top 2 per cent of all secondary schools by the Department of Education.

Barnet Old People’s Welfare committee fears that the demolition of the Fern Room, its day centre in Salisbury Road, to make way for a block of ten flats might well force the closure of a group that has been providing activities for Barnet’s elderly resident for the last 75 years.

Michael Portillo, presenter of the tv series Great Railway Journeys, unveiled a plaque at Hadley Wood station to commemorate the great steam locomotive engineer Sir Nigel Gresley, who was a former Hadley Wood resident.

Plans have been announced by a developer to demolish the Fern Room in Salisbury Road, Barnet, and replace it with a new building containing ten flats as well as new ground-floor community facilities.

Barnet market stall holders are delighted by the news that the managing agents for the Spires shopping centre are planning to move the twice-weekly stalls market to the paved area between Waitrose and the bandstand.

Organisers of Barnet’s teenage market – to be launched on Easter Saturday next year – are hoping that this new attraction will match the boost to the Spires shopping centre provided by the opening of H&M’s fashion store.

Sophie is now 11 years old and is displaying similar symptoms to her brother who died aged 17 To coincide with the start of building work on its site at the environment centre off Byng Road, Barnet, an appeal has been launched for the final £2 million needed to complete construction and fit out the new