News from The Barnet Society

This is a Badger Boar in Chipping Barnet Woodland at 5:53 am on New Year’s Day 2026. It’s one of several fine photographs in this article by Marianne Nix, a Barnet Society member who lives opposite the spinney by Christchurch Lane and designs leaflets and posters for the Save Chipping Barnet Woodland petition. She writes here in her personal capacity.

Above is a visualisation of the new 6-bedroom house proposed by its designers, Alan Cox Architects, in secluded woodland barely 200 metres from Barnet High Street. The site is described by the applicants as ‘unkempt’, and by locals petitioning against development as a ‘wildlife haven’. The site is within the Monken Hadley Conservation Area and close to the Green Belt. Some trees have individual Tree Preservation Orders; however all the trees are protected by the conservation area status. The application is a test of Barnet Council’s commitment to protecting the environment. You can comment on the proposals until Thursday 5 February.

UPDATE 2 DECEMBER 2025 Back in September, the Barnet Society submitted a 64-page critique of the planning application for 283 flats on High Barnet Station car park. This Friday 28 November is your last chance to have your say. The application may be decided by the Planning Committee on Monday 8 December.

A long-established footpath under the main railway line at New Barnet faces an uncertain future after being deemed unsafe during redevelopment of the former gas works site off Victoria Road.

Places for London (PfL), the partnership of Transport for London and Barratt London that wants to build on High Barnet Station car park, has submitted a planning application to the Council. Members of the public have until 2 September to comment on it.

After Barnet secured their return to the Football League with a decisive 4-0 win against Aldershot, supporters of the BringBarnetBack campaign hope it might strengthen the club’s chances of obtaining planning permission for a new stadium at Underhill.

Our teenagers and young adults could be among the greatest casualties of Covid-19. The Plan must offer them something, whether work experience or youth-focused leisure attractions. The Council is consulting us on projects to help regenerate the Barnet High Street area.

 PVC plastic advertising signs hung from lampposts -- including possibly along the full length of Barnet High Street -- might become a new way of generating income for Barnet Council.

Barnet has precious green open spaces, mature woodlands, streams and wetlands. Last year brought home what we stand to lose with climate change and bad building development. Surely this is the moment to invest in green initiatives. The Council is consulting us on projects to help regenerate the Barnet High Street area.

Barnet’s identity is founded on its distinctive history and building heritage. We must do something to draw the attention of more residents and potential visitors and investors to our existing assets. The Council is consulting us on projects to help regenerate the Barnet High Street area here.

The Council is consulting on a Community Plan to help regenerate the High Street area. This is your chance to have a say. The Barnet Society offers some guidance. Last month a public consultation was launched online here. We have until Friday 19 February to respond.

The Plan is out for online public consultation until 19 February. You’re invited to comment on the key principles of the plan, and to choose five project ideas for further development.

In 2020 the Barnet Society celebrated 75 years since its foundation. But our founders would be shocked at how their neighbourhood has altered. Local shops have disappeared and employment has dwindled. Pubs have become an endangered species. Vehicle traffic is as bad as ever.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has backed Barnet Council's decision to reject planning permission for the construction of blocks of flats of up to ten storeys high on the former gas works site at New Barnet.

An application has been made for planning permission to build three flats on the site of the former Victoria Bakery in Barnet High Street -- the shop doorway that was said to have been the location where Charles Dickens imagined Oliver Twist meeting the Artful Dodger.

A planning application that had been expected several months ago to build blocks of flats around High Barnet tube station has been delayed further amid speculation about the future of several other similar developments proposed by Transport for London.

Years of campaigning to preserve the Whalebones woodland and farmland in Wood Street paid off when Barnet Council's planning committee rejected an application to build 152 new houses and flats.  Strong local opposition to the loss of one of High Barnet’s precious green spaces was cited by the committee chairman, Councillor Shimon Ryde, when he used

A renewed attempt to replace a much-loathed eyesore in Union Street, High Barnet, with new housing is finally holding out the prospect of succeeding.

Plans to build a line of tower blocks on the former gas works site at New Barnet were roundly condemned when Barnet Council's planning committee unanimously rejected an application for almost twice as many flats as previously agreed.

Two building projects under construction in Chipping Barnet’s Conservation Areas are flouting planning laws. They are tests of Barnet Council’s will to enforce its planning decisions. They’re merely the most flagrant of numerous planning abuses that are gradually degrading our Conservation Areas.