News from The Barnet Society

Staff at the Rainbow Centre on the Dollis Valley estate are busy preparing food parcels, seasonal hampers and presents for needy families in what might be the food bank's last Christmas in their current premises in Dollis Valley Drive.

Festive lighting around the bandstand at The Spires shopping centre is not just a celebration of Christmas and the New Year but also a more personal reminder for friends and supporters of the Barnet charity Cherry Lodge Cancer Care.

An appeal has been launched for the renovation of Monken Hadley's historic church house which will involve reconstructing and modernising the interior so that it can be used for a wider range of community events.

After it was closed and boarded up ten years ago, the dis-used Tudor Park Pavilion is at last edging closer to the day when it could provide Barnet Vale with a much-needed amenity space and leisure facility.

Unlike the experience of many local communities that were forced to cancel festive events, the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre went ahead as planned and was well supported given the showery Sunday weather. Over eighty stalls filled the High Street, The Spires shopping centre, Barnet College courtyard and other locations in and around the town centre.

"We are back on the map at last" was the cry that went up at the unveiling of three roadside signs declaring "Welcome to Arkley Village".

Plans are afoot to upgrade Barnet Council's free-to-use tennis courts -- which include six courts just off Mays Lane and others at Tudor Park Sports Ground, Victoria Recreation Ground, and Oak Hill Park -- and then introduce a booking system and charges for playing tennis.

Rehearsals are well underway for the children's show at the annual Barnet Christmas Fayre on Sunday 5 December -- a welcome return after the loss last year of the town's festivities due to the Covid.19 lockdown restrictions.

Campaigners against high-rise blocks of flats being built on tube station car parks -- including High Barnet, Finchley Central, Cockfosters and Arnos Grove -- staged a spirited protest during the last question time session for the Mayor of London at City Hall.

With the return of many more passengers on the London Underground, the book-swap bookshelf at High Barnet tube station is proving so popular it has almost run out of books.

An ancient ditch in the woods along the northern boundary of Monken Hadley Common has been reinstated after the area was cleared of builders' rubble that had been dumped on the land.

A hand-coloured tribute from a six-year-old Barnet schoolgirl was added to the wreaths of poppies laid around the war memorial at Barnet Parish Church during the Remembrance Sunday Service. Eloise Weekes-Eden, a pupil at Underhill School, drew and coloured her own contribution for the Act of Remembrance and placed it at the base of the memorial.

Ambitious plans to develop and expand the twice weekly Barnet Market have been given the go ahead by BYM Capital, the new owners of The Spires shopping centre.

One of the top priorities for High Barnet's dedicated team of police officers -- the Safer Neighbourhood Team -- is to respond to complaints about anti-social behaviour in the High Street including begging on the pavement and disturbances involving rowdy youngsters.

A renewed attempt to secure planning approval to build 152 houses and flats on the Whalebones fields and woods has been rejected by a government planning inspector, Jonathan Price.

By the spring of next year and the second anniversary in March of the start of lockdown there should be a carpet of daffodils on the lawn in front of Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School.

After missing out on singing together and being forced for so long to rehearse via Zoom, the Barnet Choral Society are preparing for a stylish comeback presenting a performance of Verdi Requiem at their first concert for two years.

A government decision is expected before the end of the year on the future of the Grasvenor Avenue Infant School where staff and parents have already been warned about its possible closure in July next year. Officials at the Department of Education are currently looking at the options.

Secondary school pupils who play an instrument or who are studying music are being invited to take part in a young composers' competition organised by the High Barnet Chamber Music Festival. The competition is aimed at widening local interest and support in what is to become an annual chamber music festival at Barnet Parish Church.

After Premier Inn abandoned its plans to build a new hotel on the former Barnet Market site, the empty land is back on the market for potential redevelopment with flats and townhouses. Bids for the site, which is bounded by St Albans Road and Chipping Close, have been received by agents Cushman and Wakefield.