News from The Barnet Society

Local councils in London and the Home Counties are currently planning to allow building on more than 48,000 acres of the Green Belt, according to a major new report by the London Green Belt Council (LGBC).

After a nine-day Public Inquiry last month in Hendon Town Hall, a Planning Inspector has dismissed Citystyle Fairview’s appeal against Barnet Council’s refusal of 539 flats on the former gasworks site.

National Car Parks has refused to comment on speculation that its contract to operate the NCP car park at The Spires Shopping Centre in High Barnet is about to be relinquished or even terminated.

Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, has stepped in to support residents in a renewed attempt to stop the demolition of 33 Lyonsdown Road, New Barnet, a locally-listed Victorian villa which the Barnet Society and other heritage groups have been campaigning to save since 2017.

The Lord Nelson, tucked away off Wood Street, High Barnet, is the 2022 Runner Up Pub of the Year in the annual contest organised by the Enfield and Barnet Campaign for Real Ale.

Two stalwarts have stepped down after 20 years' campaigning with the Barnet Society -- High Street champion Gail Laser and long-standing committee member Andrew Hutchings.

After remaining empty and disused for the last four years, a buyer has finally been found for the abandoned car park that was once the home of Barnet Market -- and what was for a brief time due to have become the site of a Premier Inn.

After 30 years in business the A1 Clay Shooting Ground just north of Arkley has closed -- raising questions as to the future use of another large site in the Green Belt between Barnet and the M25 motorway.

Urgent action is needed to save 33 Lyonsdown Road following Barnet Council’s recent decision to allow its demolition. Together with local residents, the Barnet Society has been campaigning since 2017 to save this beautiful Victorian villa but the owners have used the permitted development route to apply to knock down the locally listed building.

After a two-week inquiry into the latest plans to redevelop the former gas works site in New Barnet, a planning inspector will have to decide whether developers Citystyle Fairview should be allowed to squeeze in 168 more flats than were originally agreed in 2017.

New Barnet's Salvation Army Hall is about to be demolished  a poignant reminder of the many local connections with the movement's founder, General William Booth, who lived in Hadley Wood until his death in 1912.

Converting the former Grasvenor Avenue Infant School to take pupils with special education needs will help meet the lack of places within the Borough of Barnet for children with learning difficulties.

Record temperatures and an unprecedented red alert heatwave warning are claimed to be further justification for opposition to a scheme to build high-rise blocks of flats on the former gas works site at New Barnet.

Record temperatures and an unprecedented red alert heatwave warning are claimed to be further justification for opposition to a scheme to build high-rise blocks of flats on the former gas works site at New Barnet.

For the first time in a decade Tudor Park Pavilion was brought back to life hosting a Picnic for the Pavilion for the residents of Barnet Vale...well almost!

Barnet Council has intervened on planning and licensing grounds to ensure a full hearing of the views of local residents before a decision is made on whether to allow an adult gaming centre to open in Barnet High Street.

A concert by pupils at Queen Elizabeth's Boys School was another first for the High Barnet Chamber Music Festival which is now in its second year. Reaching out to local schools and working in partnership with them is one of the long term aims of the festival’s organisers.

A planning inspector has given the go ahead for Barnet House, the twelve-storey vacant office block in High Road, Whetstone, to be converted into 260 flats with affordable workspace on the ground floor.

An artist's impression illustrates how Green Belt fields off Mays Lane, Barnet, are to be transformed into London's first purpose built equine therapy centre where challenged youngsters will be able to interact with specially trained horses.

Barnet parish church is to host the first concert of this year's High Barnet Chamber Music Festival -- and the two soloists on the opening night, French horn player Annemarie Federle and tenor Brenton Spiteri have been busy rehearsing.