News from The Barnet Society

The controversial proposal to build a Premier Inn on the former Barnet Market site has been rejected by Barnet’s planning committee, against the planning officers’ advice. The three grounds for rejection have just been published, and the planning committee has explained why they believe the proposal would be detrimental to existing Chipping Close residents.

Local residents and nearby businesses are to be consulted over a plan to build a 100-bed care home for the elderly on the site of the former Marie Foster Centre in Wood Street, Barnet.

After lying abandoned and derelict for years the former nurses’ home in Wood Street, Barnet, is to be demolished to make way for a new care home for the elderly to be built on the Marie Foster care home site.

A development plan for the woods and fields around Whalebones in Wood Street, Barnet, proposes the construction of between 150 and 180 homes to be offset by the creation of two new green spaces and footpaths open to the public.

After months of speculation about the future of the Whalebones estate of woods and fields in Wood Street, Barnet, the trustees are about to announce further details of what they say will be “high-quality residential development” together with green spaces open to the public.

The Barnet Society supports the current planning applications for both a Premier Inn and relocation of the market to The Spires bandstand site – but only subject to several strict conditions. And we do so in the belief that a big opportunity could be lost.

Buildings around the iconic headquarters of the former National Institute for Medical Research on the Ridgeway, at Mill Hill, are being demolished to make way for a new 460-home development by Barratt London.

A new masterplan for the future redevelopment of the Barnet Hospital site is in preparation and it does include proposals for a new multi-storey car park. Royal Free London NHS Trust has already conducted an informal pre-planning application with Barnet Council on future plans for the Wellhouse Lane site.

Over the last 18 months, Sadiq Khan has been consulting Londoners about aspects of a new London Plan. It sets a framework for local plans across London.

Big new housing developments such as Elmbank, opposite the Arkley public house, are changing the face of High Barnet – and plans are likely to be presented during 2018 for several more sizeable schemes.

Creating a city farm with access for volunteers and local children is one of the ideas being canvassed by Theresa Villiers, the Chipping Barnet MP, as part of her efforts to save the Whalebones open space.

Local residents raised a glass to celebrate – and wish good health -- to the 250-year-old oak tree at the junction of The Meadway and Potters Road in support of the Woodland Trust’s “We Love Street Trees” campaign.

Shanly Homes, which purchased the semi-derelict Brake Shear House workshops off Barnet High Street earlier this year, has appointed new architects to review the plans for redeveloping the site. Planning permission was granted to the previous owners, Wrenbridge, to build 32 flats, eight semi-detached houses and workspace for 40 or more employees.

After protests from local tree lovers, Barnet Council finally called a temporary halt to trench digging and cable laying directly under a 250-year-old oak that commands the brow of the hill at the junction of The Meadway and Potters Road, New Barnet.

After being refused permission in January, Barnet Council’s planning committee has now approved plans for the proposed Ark Academy school on the site of the vacant Underhill stadium, former home of Barnet Football Club.

A derelict former nurses’ home that has been an eyesore for years will finally be demolished under plans to build flats and townhouses on the Marie Foster Care Home site in Wood Street, Barnet. NHS Property Services has put the two-and-a-half-acre site up for sale.

After failing its first public examination, Ark Pioneer Academy (APA) is back for a re-sit – this time a planning application for a new 1,200-place secondary school and 6th form.

A survey is to be undertaken to discover the extent of local interest and reaction to the prospect of housing development on the Whalebones green space, between Barnet Hospital and Wood Street.

To the dismay of its owner, Barnet Council has refused planning permission for a semi-derelict shop in Union Street, High Barnet, to be demolished and replaced with either a two-bedroom house or two one-bedroom flats.

Up to forty jobs might be lost if planning permission is approved for the construction of two blocks of flats on the site of car repair workshops and other light-industrial premises at Meadow Works, midway between High Barnet and Whetstone.