News from The Barnet Society

Trustees for the Gwyneth Cowing estate have given an assurance to the Barnet Society that any development of Whalebones Park for residential and community use would be of “high quality” and would retain as “much natural habitat as possible”.  In the two weeks since the Society first reported that an application has been made for outline

Whalebones Park, a 14-acre stretch of fields and woods between Barnet Hospital and Wood Street, is about to be considered by Barnet Council as a possible area to be developed for future housing and community use.

Plans for a five-storey block of flats and a three-storey office block are the main features of an extensive residential and commercial redevelopment that will reshape the townscape behind shops in Barnet High Street.

Renewed uncertainty about the future of the White Lion on St Albans Road has led to a successful bid to persuade Barnet Council to declare that the pub is a community asset of value to local residents.

A set of painted wall tiles revealed during building work at 89 High Street Barnet depict a dairy maid holding her pail, with cows and chickens in the background.

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.

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.

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.

A yellow ribbon is tied around the trunk, and the words “save me” have been sprayed onto the bark of a healthy 100-year old oak tree which Barnet Council intends to cut down as part of a housing scheme in Whitings Road.

When work starts in October on a survey and excavation to find the site of the Battle of Barnet of 1471, local residents and schoolchildren will have their chance to play a part in the great upsurge in interest in medieval history that has occurred since the discovery of King Richard III’s remains in a

Barnet High Street is once again bedecked with flowering hanging baskets – their arrival was delayed by the late spring and they are still in need of some more warm weather! When in full bloom, the 19 hanging baskets will bring a real splash of colour to the High Street.

Barnet Football Club’s vacant stadium at Underhill is to be demolished to make way for a proposed new free school – Ark Pioneer Academy – that would eventually accommodate more than 1,800 pupils.

Work could start as early as January next year on High Barnet’s largest housing development since the opening of the Dollis Valley estate. If planning permission is obtained, Linden Homes plan to construct over 100 new homes on the vacant Elmbank site that extends from Barnet Road, Arkley, almost to Barnet Hospital.

Barnet Council has been accused by supporters of the Campaign for Real Ale of acting in an underhand way in rejecting an application to grant community asset protection to the now closed Old Red Lion public house at the bottom of Barnet Hill.

Six candidates have been nominated for the Chipping Barnet constituency in the general election on Thursday 7 May – a seat currently held by Theresa Villiers, who has been the Conservative MP for the constituency since 2005.

Barnet Council is being urged by the Campaign for Real Ale to prevent the demolition of the Old Red Lion public house, at the bottom of Barnet Hill, by declaring it a community asset for the use of local residents.