News from The Barnet Society

Squatters have taken over empty offices in Barnet High Street -- just weeks after a group departed from a similar squat in a former restaurant.

Chipping Barnet's foodbank is experiencing a surge in demand: the number of households dependent on food parcels has almost doubled since the summer and an appeal has gone out to Christmas shoppers to donate what they  can. The five most urgently required products are pasta sauces, cooking oil, tinned meat, tinned fruit, and tinned potatoes.

A scheme which is being proposed by Barnet Homes could transform the top end of Moxon Street be creating a car-free mews with two rows of terraced houses to provide a total of 21 new homes.

An evening session for designing and making Christmas wreaths brought a festive spirit to a community pop-up event at the Chipping Work Shop in Barnet High Street.

Local authorities will have greater freedom about implementing government housing targets following a Conservative revolt in the House of Commons led by the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers.

Barry Rawlings, Labour leader of Barnet Council, is increasingly hopeful of a breakthrough in the campaign to the get the restoration of the 84-bus service between Barnet and Potters Bar.

Despite a cold, grey day the Mayor of Barnet Councillor Alison Moore got the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre off to a flying start by cutting the ribbon in the middle of the High Street.

Two vacant retail unts in The Spires, Barnet, are to be taken over as the site for one of the revamped Poundland stores which are being opened in shopping malls and town centres across the country.

Four key roads serving High Barnet -- which are just within the borough boundary -- have been excluded from the new vehicle emissions zone for the whole of Greater London.

A children's competition which is being organised with the help of shops along the High Street is part of the promotional build-up for this year's Barnet Christmas Fayre on Sunday 4 December.

Householders in roads in Mill Hill, Arkley, High Barnet, and Hadley Wood are being offered a free connection if they sign up to a Swedish company which is installing a new fibre broadband service.

Planning approval has been refused for opening an adult gaming centre in the former TSB bank building on Barnet High Street. An application by Merkur Slots to change the use of the ground floor to create a 24-hour gaming centre with machines offering winnings of up to £500 met fierce opposition from residents and community organisations.

A one-woman road safety campaign to persuade Barnet Council to consider introducing 20 mph speed limits on all residential roads in the borough was going nowhere until the issue was raised at a Living Streets event organised by the Barnet Society.

With public houses said to be closing at the rate of one a day across the country, licensed premises along Barnet High Street are doing what they can to buck the trend, each with a distinctive offer to potential customers.

As more of Barnet Council's services are withdrawn from outsourcing contractors Capita, New Barnet community activist John Dix feels increasingly vindicated that his "sniff test" was correct: that the Capita deal was a costly mistake for the council taxpayers of Barnet.  Many of the services contracted out to Capita are due to have been taken back

An application to build 13 blocks of flats on the former gas works site in New Barnet has ended in another embarrassing defeat. A High Court judge had no hesitation in throwing out a last-minute appeal by house builders Citystyle Fairview.

Theresa Villiers blames government house building targets for putting pressure on local councils to accept "entirely inappropriate" high-rise developments in suburban neighbourhoods like Barnet.

Squatters who have taken over a former restaurant in Barnet High Street might soon be having to contend with a new owner of the property. The three-storey building is in the process of being sold with a guide price of £875,000.

A fourteen-year dispute about redeveloping the former gas works site in New Barnet is about to kick off again in the High Court when housebuilders Citystyle Fairview will try to overturn the decision of a planning inspector.

There has been widespread support from within the film and television industry for a planning application to almost double the size of the Sky Studios Elstree complex which is currently nearing completion at Borehamwood. Thirteen new sound stages are due to be fully operational by February next year at a cost of £230 million.