News from The Barnet Society

A steady and significant improvement in air quality in Barnet High Street is continuing to be recorded by Barnet Council’s scientific services which indicates that levels of nitrogen dioxide should fall at even faster rates with the growth in the number of electric vehicles.

Barely five years after Mayor Khan’s current London Plan came into force, he’s consulting on a new one. The good news is that it will be a lot slimmer than the present version. The bad news for Barnet is that he’s upping his target for new homes in our borough, and he’s identified places in the Green Belt where some of them could be built.

A time capsule was buried in the grounds of Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice in Byng Road, Barnet, as part of the celebrations to mark its 20th anniversary. Twenty messages from children and families supported by the hospice were placed in the capsule to help commemorate its work.

Retailers in Mays Lane have welcomed Barnet Council’s decision to remove all but one of the parking charges which were introduced at the end of last year outside their parade of shops.

Fresh proposals are unlikely to emerge until at least the New Year for the completion of the Dollis Valley regeneration following the call-in and collapse of a scheme previously agreed by Barnet Council to build 208 new affordable homes on the estate.

Barnet Council has had to abandon an immediate go ahead for the final stage of the Dollis Valley redevelopment following the sudden withdrawal of a £58.85 million grant from the Greater London Authority for building new affordable homes.

Completion of the redevelopment of the Dollis Valley estate – where blocks of flats and maisonettes have been awaiting demolition for the last three years – is finally to go ahead with access to a £58 million grant from the Greater London Authority.

A new community garden has been established in New Barnet through a partnership between a church and a bowls club. A blessing to celebrate the opening of the garden at the East Barnet Valley Bowls Club was conducted by the Reverend Sharon Ejinkonye, the newly installed vicar at St James Church, New Barnet.

Planning approval has finally been given after four years of negotiations and discussions for a new four-storey building at a prominent site in Barnet town centre at the corner of High Street and Moxon Street.

Pioneering work on behalf of the low paid by Bob Bevil, who is a lead campaigner for Chipping Barnet Foodbank, has won national recognition. He was presented with a Living Wage Champion of the Year Award at the annual awards ceremony held by the Living Wage Foundation.

An Inspector has dismissed an appeal by developer Christchurchgrove Ltd against Barnet Council’s refusal of its planning application to build a 5-bedroom house in a wood in Chipping Barnet. The decision concludes a successful campaign by local residents, with help from the Barnet Society, to save a cherished natural habitat in the Monken Hadley Conservation Area. It also sends a message to developers about the Council’s commitment to protecting green spaces in Barnet.

Standing proud in the re-opened garden of the Black Horse public house are three former regular customers who have taken on the lease of what they hope will once again become a popular community pub.

Residents and conservationists have reacted with alarm at a proposal to include the historic gate at Monken Hadley within an eruv – a symbolic boundary for Orthodox Jews – which would require the installation of two 5.5metre high poles with a crosswire over the road.

Plans are being prepared to seek approval from Barnet Council for the construction of a new sports hall and ten classrooms at Queen Elizabeth’s School. Fund raising will start next year if permission is obtained for what the school says is part of a continuing programme to upgrade facilities within its existing site off Queens Road.

In a further attempt to curb the growth of dodgy shops along high streets in his constituency, the Chipping Barnet MP Dan Tomlinson is encouraging residents to report their suspicions directly to him.

Construction of new houses and flats is well underway on what was the last remaining field on the border betweenHigh High Barnet and Arkley – a development described by a Deputy Mayor of London as a “fantastic example” of delivering new homes while preserving a green space and respecting the heritage of the location.

Anger among Underhill residents over Barnet Council’s imposition of parking charges outside a parade of shops in Mays Lane is said to be a likely reason why parking signs have been obliterated with black paint.

Volunteers who look after the countryside and manage outdoor activities met their MP Dan Tomlinson at a reception at the House of Commons where he congratulated them for all they did to preserve the greenery which he said was such an attractive feature of the Chipping Barnet constituency.

Barnet Society members have voted decisively to support and contribute to any campaign to mount a legal challenge against the Deputy Mayor of London’s decision to overrule Barnet Council and authorise the go ahead for blocks of flats on the car park at High Barnet tube station.

Construction of a massive complex of nearly 500 new flats at New Barnet is reaching the half-way stage – just as the go-ahead for the start of a proposed high-rise development at High Barnet tube station might be only weeks away.