News from The Barnet Society

“The boys dun good” was the general consensus of passers-by as three High Barnet seniors spent 16 man hours giving the Church Passage bench a much-needed wash and brush-up.

Three volunteers spent the morning washing down and scrubbing clean the long, architecturally-designed teak bench that is beside the gardens in Church Passage, just off Barnet High Street.

Schools in and around Barnet are already queuing up for their pupils to visit the Byng Road nature reserve and its new eco-friendly environment centre after its official opening by leading benefactor Janet Hulme of the Hadley Trust.

Opposition is mounting to the possibility that 14 acres of woods and farmland at Whalebones, between Wood Street and Barnet Hospital, might be zoned for housing and community use.

A two-storey, 24,000-square-foot new fashion store – replacing four existing shop units – will become the centrepiece of a new-look Spires shopping centre if planning permission is obtained from Barnet Council.

Getting on his high horse: Nick Jones, Barnet Society Chair, arguing for free parking on ITV’s Parking Wars Barnet Council has finally agreed to review its parking charges along Barnet High Street following a campaign by the Barnet Society on behalf of local residents, shoppers and traders.

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.

The purchase by a property company of Barnet’s former British Legion hall at the corner of Moxon Street and Tapster Street has opened up for residential redevelopment another swathe of land immediately to the east of the High Street.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

A joint attempt by the Barnet Society and the Barnet Times to persuade Barnet Council to introduce a period of free car parking to boost trade in the borough’s high streets was rejected by the environment committee.

Roger Aitken signing the petition at the Christmas Fair with Robin Bishop, Mary Carroll and Teresa Kelly Almost 2,000 people visiting shops and other premises in the High Street have signed the Barnet Society’s petition calling on Barnet Council to consider offering an hour’s free parking to help the town’s retailers.

Consultations have started on proposals to redevelop part of the course of the Old Fold Manor Golf Club, across land that is currently included in the registered site of the Battle of Barnet.

Petition forms distributed by the Barnet Society to around 100 shops and other retail premises along the High Street are showing far higher support than expected for the Society’s campaign for an hour’s free parking.

High Barnet’s “impossible” parking controls are forcing another independent trader out of the High Street. Hadley Hounds, a dog grooming parlour established five years ago, is having to leave and find new premises in Whetstone because difficulties over parking have proved the “final straw” for proprietor Eve Fox.

Theresa Villiers MP, Gordon Massey (Chair of BRA) and Councillor David Longstaff all oppose the petition Councillor David Longstaff has joined Mrs Theresa Villiers MP and Gordon Massey, chairman of Barnet Residents Association, in opposing the Barnet Society’s petition calling for an hour’s free parking to help win back shoppers to the High Street.

Another two independent traders are being forced out of the High Street by a combination of high rents and the chronic difficulties faced by shoppers confronted by High Barnet’s expensive and inordinately complicated parking regime.