News from The Barnet Society

High Barnet volunteers who love to sew are joining the nationwide effort to produce protective clothing for hospital and care home staff tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

High Barnet publican Gary Murphy, licensee of the Mitre, is at the forefront of a campaign by landlords to force pub owners to back down and agree to a rent freeze while the coronavirus lockdown continues. Greene King charge Mr Murphy £8,000 a month in rent.

Specialist shops along Barnet High Street -- as well as numerous take-away food outlets -- are determined to try to continue trading in the wake of the continuing lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic.

Locked and taped-off playgrounds are a poignant reminder of the impact that the coronavirus self-distancing restrictions are having on the opportunities for children to exercise and enjoy themselves.

Cultivating an allotment is one of the few outdoor activities that is still permitted during the coronavirus lockdown and thanks to the current run of fine, dry weather Barnet's plots have never been busier or looked in better shape. Strict rules on self-discipling and site hygeine apply and allotment holders are literally keeping themselves poles apart.

Barnet householders and families were out in force to join the second nationwide Thursday evening clap for carers in support of NHS workers treating patients during the coronavirus pandemic.

There could hardly be a more opportune moment for a determined push to host new productions and attractions at the Bull Theatre in the hope they might appeal to audiences in High Barnet and widen public support.

After feedback from a public exhibition in January, the Victoria Quarter housing development on the former gas works site in New Barnet has been scaled back slightly by lowering the height of the proposed blocks of flats and by making a small reduction in the number of new homes.

Planting trees on Barnet Hill has been one of the great achievements of the Barnet Society -- and it is still work in progress with a row of Hawthorn being the lastest.

Barnet's highly successful medieval festival, due to have been staged during the last weekend in May, is just one of the many local events that are having to be postponed or cancelled because of the coronavirus crisis.  Organisers have rescheduled this year's festival from its original date of May 30-31 to the weekend of September 19-20.

Only around 20 shops and retail outlets are still open for business along the entire length of Barnet High Street during the second week of the tightening squeeze being imposed by the coronavirus lockdown.

A massive pile of rubble, beams and planks was all that was left of Barnet’s blot of the landscape – the derelict nurses’ home for the former Victoria Maternity Hospital in Wood Street. Heavy mechanical equipment moved into the Marie Foster Centre site just before Christmas and the demolition was completed within a day.

Hadley Football Club, which is aiming to become a regular home attraction for many more Barnet football fans, faces two critical New Year fixtures in its bid to gain promotion to the next level of the National Football League.

A triptych featuring Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst – which was on display at the Barnet Guild of Artists’ annual exhibition – has pride of place in the entrance to the Reel cinema in Boreham Wood. Two walls of the cinema foyer gallery are filled with paintings, cartoons and caricatures by Barnet artist, Simon Ellinas.

An appeal to provide a Christmas present for children living in poverty across the Borough of Barnet is hoping to distribute well over 300 parcels each containing a gift. Presents can be purchased online for distribution by the Young Barnet Foundation as part of its Secret Santa Appeal.

A new leaflet has been published that brings together all the contact details and opening times for urgent medical attention and hospital care that will be available across the Borough of Barnet during the Christmas and New Year holiday. Copies are available in health centres, surgeries, pharmacies, libraries and other public buildings.

Fraud officers from Barnet Council have conducted a sweep of cars parked in Barnet High Street and surrounding roads as part of a stepped-up campaign to detect fraudulent use of disabled blue badges.

Theresa Villiers, Conservative MP for Chipping Barnet since 2005, has been returned to the House of Commons with a slightly increased majority after a closely fought general election contest against Labour candidate, Emma Whysall.

Plans for the station land have been scaled back, as Nick Jones reported on 7 November. But unless more radical improvements are made, the Barnet Society will oppose them. Last August, we sent the Society’s 20-point criteria for development* to Transport for London and its developer partner Taylor Wimpey (TfL/TW).

The fate of the car park at High Barnet tube station and a critical shortage of general practitioners across the borough were two local issues – in addition to Brexit and climate change – that produced lively exchanges at the Chipping Barnet constituency election hustings.