News from The Barnet Society

A training weekend for local metal dectorists in a freshly ploughed field off Kitts End Lane has kicked off an archaeological investigation to determine the precise site of the Battle of Barnet of 1471.

Fibre4Barnet, the pressure group set up by Ken Rowland to try to force British Telecom to complete the rollout of high-speed broadband to the whole of High Barnet, says a possible wait of up to two years for further improvements is “totally unacceptable”.

Almost 30 small businesses and workshops with premises on land behind Barnet High Street may have to relocate within months to make way for a massive redevelopment.

After a determined campaign by local residents the “mighty oak” of Whitings Road has been saved from the axe. Barnet Council has approved a tree protection order and, more importantly, has agreed to change its plans for the approach road to a proposed housing development on land next to Whitings Hill Primary School.

Parking Wars on ITV The Barnet Society's campaign for a 30 minute free parking period in the High Street is featured in the latest series is Parking Wars at 8pm on ITV 1 on Thursday 15 September.

“Pineapples, two for a pound!” – father and son David and Tyler Bone have both been shouting out prices for fruit and vegetables at Barnet Market since before they were ten, and together they are carrying on a tradition that was started by David’s father Albert in the 1950s.

After months of campaigning by the Barnet Society, British Telecom have finally given an assurance that it will improve the broadband service in High Barnet by upgrading at least half the cabinets that need to be fibre enabled.

Decorating the High Street with the banners of medieval noblemen might be one of the ways to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Barnet of 1471 if support can be obtained from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Barnet High Street has been bedecked once again with flowering hanging baskets. But please do not be fooled into thinking Barnet Council deserves the credit for adding this splash of colour to the town centre.

Queen Elizabeth I’s charter of 1573 provided for ‘boys and youth’, but it was not until 1888 that Barnet got a school for girls.  Its oldest buildings are not just a gentle monument to a pioneering educational movement, but fine examples of the Arts and Crafts style.

If permission is granted to demolish the empty After Office Hours bar next to the Bull Theatre, the Barnet Society says there must be stringent planning conditions, and time for a proper archaeological investigation.

A campaign to save what has been dubbed the “mighty oak” of Whitings Road has made significant progress.

Two High Street premises will be extended to include flats if planning permission can be obtained from Barnet Council – and both applications have already sparked controversy.

Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School has just recorded its best-ever GCSE results – a high point in the career of the retiring headmistress Kate Webster. The school’s success has coincided with a plea by the Barnet Society for school’s oldest buildings, largely obscured by modern additions, to be given protected status by Barnet Council.

After endless delays and broken promises by British Telecom, High Barnet residents without high-speed broadband are being encouraged by Theresa Villiers MP to think of signing up for a rival service being that might be offered by Virgin Media.

A Canadian investment fund is the new owner of the Spires shopping centre in High Barnet, having paid £40 million for what the agents say is prime retail space in “one of London’s largest and fastest-growing boroughs, as well as one of the most affluent”.

Two new housing developments are changing still further the appearance of Union Street in High Barnet, which in recent years has lost shops, offices, a school and even its public house.

A living roof planted with sedum is one of the eco-friendly features of the new Barnet Environment Centre, which is nearing completion at the end of Byng Road.

The Club’s application for major re-landscaping has been submitted to the planners. The Barnet Society is minded to support it – but only subject to tough planning conditions. The Society Committee has agreed a draft response.

You’d think that planning controls in the Green Belt and Conservation Areas would be stricter than elsewhere. No longer. Two premises in Chipping Barnet – one a pair of barns in the countryside between Mays Lane and the Dollis Brook, the other our former Town Hall in Union Street – are being converted to residential use.