News from The Barnet Society

Barnet Council has promised that a heritage officer will carry out an inspection in Church Passage in the “very near future” in an attempt to resolve continuing disagreement over cladding on the frontage of retail premises in the heart of the High Barnet conservation area.

Barnet Council has almost £150,000 available which could be spent immediately on improving the road junction at the top of Barnet Hill, if only an agreement could be reached on how best to ease traffic congestion and make it safer for pedestrians.

The Barnet Society pinpoints the sites of missing telecoms cabinets needed to deliver a fast broadband service.  The Barnet Society has identified eight sites where it believes British Telecom needs to install additional kerbside telecoms cabinets if several thousand High Barnet households are ever going to have the chance to obtain a fast broadband connection.

An imaginative array of ideas for reviving Barnet’s shopping centre was outlined at the Barnet Society’s annual question and answer session with the Chipping Barnet MP Mrs Theresa Villiers.

A long-awaited meeting between Theresa Villiers MP and senior executives of British Telecom has still left unanswered many of the questions about when – or if ever – many High Barnet residents will be offered a superfast broadband connection.

A planning inspector has ordered that unauthorised timber cladding must be removed from the frontage of retail premises in the heart of the High Barnet conservation area. An appeal by Mr G. Cramer, owner of 1 Church Passage, has been rejected and Barnet Council has won official backing for an enforcement notice requiring its removal.

Local residents who are against plans for tree-felling and landfill on the site of Old Fold Manor Golf Club off Hadley Green have been promised the support of the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers.

All the fun of the fair filled the High Street for the annual Barnet Christmas Fair, which many judged was the most ambitious and best supported since the event was first held twenty years ago.

A planning inspector has now been appointed to consider the objections made by the Barnet Society and other local groups to the installation of unauthorised timber cladding above retail premises in Church Passage, in the heart of the High Barnet conservation area.

New recycling service: an eyewitness report from a Barnet Society member. High Barnet householders have been told they should become their own recycling monitors and report back to Barnet Council on the efficiency of the new service for collecting recyclable refuse.

Whitings Hill is hardly likely to rival New England in the fall, but two plantations planted almost 20 years ago by the Barnet Society are now resplendent with mature trees and are presenting a vibrant display of autumn colours.

As part of the preparations to deliver Barnet’s new waste and recycling service, Barnet Council will be training all waste service collection staff in the week beginning the 7 October.  A Press Release from Barnet Council stated today.

Barnet residents are about to face what looks like becoming a game of musical chairs among the wheelie bins and containers which proliferate in the frontages of houses and flats across the borough. Out go the black and blue recycling boxes . . .

The council is proposing to change the way that decisions are taken and introduce a Committee System form of governance.   Barnet are currently operating an Executive System of governance.  Under this system, the majority of decisions in the council are taken by the single-party Executive (or Cabinet) either in the Cabinet meeting or by individual Cabinet

After a rising chorus of protest from local community and residential groups, Barnet Council has finally issued an enforcement notice requiring the removal of timber cladding to the frontage of a former cafe and shop in Church Passage, just off the High Street.

After having originally threatened to appeal against a High Court ruling that it had acted unlawfully in doubling charges in controlled parking zones, Barnet Council has now agreed to make refunds and take no further legal action.

A successful petition has helped to stop Barnet Council from appealing against the High Court ruling on controlled parking zones. Hundreds of Barnet residents called on the council to stop wasting even more council taxpayers’ money in trying to appeal against a ruling by Mrs Justice Lang.

High Barnet’s most popular children’s playground in the Old Court House recreation ground could become even more inviting if a new tenant can be found for the vacant park café. Barnet Council’s Commercial Directorate is offering a 15-year lease on the disused café and sitting area in an adjoining garden.

North London’s much-troubled plan for handling municipal rubbish and waste is out for consultations once again.

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.