News from The Barnet Society

Barnet Museum has been fighting for its life since December 2010 when the Council announced that it would be withdrawing its funding. The Museum is managed by Barnet & District Local History Society and run entirely by volunteers.

Barnet’s former town hall, opposite St John’s Church, provides a positive reminder of the imaginative uses which can be found for redundant municipal property. This iconic building has now completed three years as the home of the North London Coroner’s Court and its future seems assured.

Like so much of the rest of the country High Barnet is losing its historic public houses at an alarming rate.

Some long-awaited summer sunshine in late July provided the final seal of approval for Barnet’s town centre uplift and the newly-created meeting and seating area beside St John’s Church.  Instead of a line of forbidding holly bushes there are now new walkways and benches, sweet smelling lavender in freshly formed flower beds, and an attractive

A major planning application for the redevelopment of the former Middlesex University campus at Cat Hill in New Barnet was rejected by Enfield Council in March 2012. The redevelopment scheme is for new housing by L&Q, the same Housing Association that will be developing affordable homes at Dollis Valley.

An exhibition was held in mid-January to show plans for the proposed redevelopment of St Martha's Convent Junior School on Union Street prior to a planning application being made. The proposals are for 26 one, two and three bedroomed flats for older women (Older Womens Co-Housing, or OWCH!) and include shared facilities and generous gardens.

Noah’s Ark Childrens’ Hospice has received planning consent for reserved matters for their proposed redevelopment of Barnet Countryside Centre (the former Curriculum Centre) in Byng Road.

In 2011 an application to demolish the Barnet Court House and replace it with a modern block of flats was refused by the Council and that decision was subsequently upheld at appeal.

People have again been enjoying the view from the top the tower of our parish church, St John the Baptist. The tower is reputedly the highest point between here and York.  Details of the tower openings and Saturday morning concerts are here.

The constitution of The Barnet Society requires us to seek to protect the Green Belt around Chipping Barnet. Indeed that was the Society’s founding purpose.

The Barnet Society has been lobbying the Council for some time for a Town Centre Framework for Chipping Barnet, in line with its promise to provide one under adopted Planning Policy.

Proposals for the phased redevelopment of the Dollis Valley estate are advancing.  The overall development will be in five phases, spread over a period of about five years.  There will eventually be approximately 630 new homes of which some 390 will be for sale, including intermediate sale, and at least 230 rented.

The Barnet Society has made representations to Barnet Council over the latest stage of the Core Strategy of the Local Development Framework (LDF). The Core Strategy is the principal document produced by the Local Planning Authority and guides the other planning policy documents.

Plans are underway. masterminded by the Barnet Residents Association, for a 10-day festival this summer to showcase local talent and places of entertainment. It will run from 17th - 26th June. This is a new venture and, if successful, could become an annual event.

The Fayre on the first weekend in December was a very good event this year – despite the weather being bitterly cold – with many people getting out and enjoying all that was on offer.

Planning applications have been made for the Barnet Market site - one for improvements to the site for market use and the other for use as a car park on non-market days.  The scandalously-neglected site will be due for a new surface, storage and welfare facilities for stallholders.

In spite of the Barnet Society having drawn up plans for improving the junction of the High Street and Wood Street at the top of Barnet Hill over a year ago and the new Barnet College having opened last September, the Council have made very little progress on the proposals.