Planning & Environment

Our teenagers and young adults could be among the greatest casualties of Covid-19. The Plan must offer them something, whether work experience or youth-focused leisure attractions.
The town centre must become more child-friendly. Only if families have reasons to come here that appeal to their children, not just to parents’ need to work or shop, will it become important in their lives.
Barnet has precious green open spaces, mature woodlands, streams and wetlands. Last year brought home what we stand to lose with climate change and bad building development. Surely this is the moment to invest in green initiatives.
The Council is consulting on a Community Plan to help regenerate the High Street area. This is your chance to have a say. The Barnet Society offers some guidance.
The Plan is out for online public consultation until 19 February. You’re invited to comment on the key principles of the plan, and to choose five project ideas for further development.
Friday, 01 January 2021 09:18

75 years on - onward to a greener Barnet

In 2020 the Barnet Society celebrated 75 years since its foundation. But our founders would be shocked at how their neighbourhood has altered.
Tuesday, 29 December 2020 17:59

Was this rare early film shot in Barnet?

Birt Acres, a key figure in the invention of British movies, lived and worked in Chipping Barnet. His 1897 short Band Marching down a Street is one of very few to survive from the earliest days of film. Local history investigation has convinced me that it was shot in Stapylton Road.
Wednesday, 23 December 2020 18:09

Rambles Round Barnet Update 23rd December 2020

There is a serious problem for ramblers planning to travel by car to Dancers Hill before doing the following walks:
Tuesday, 24 November 2020 17:46

Return of the zombie telecom hubs

Barely a year after JC Decaux was refused planning permission for three telecom/advertising hubs in the High Street, they’ve returned with two more. If approved, that would make four within 200 metres.
The Barnet Society’s 75th birthday in May 2020 is a timely moment to celebrate the local Green Belt that was the original reason for our existence.
The Barnet Society’s 75th birthday in 2020 was a timely moment to celebrate, in three recent Website articles, the local Green Belt that was the original reason for our existence. In recent years, the Society has submitted responses to public consultations regarding the Green Belt by the All Party Parliamentary Group, the London Assembly, Hertsmere Council and the London Borough of Enfield.
Since 2013 the Barnet Society has submitted responses to the following London Assembly (LA), Mayor of London (MoL) & Transport for London (TfL) public consultations.
Past, present and future work in and around Chipping Barnet - a talk to Barnet U3A on 6 August 2020 by Robin Bishop, Chair of the Society.
Since 2016 the Barnet Society has submitted responses to the following London Borough of Barnet (LBB) public consultations.
Monday, 03 August 2020 18:02

Barnet Society 75th anniversary walks

Enjoy five short walks in our local countryside recommended by Owen Jones.
Wednesday, 22 July 2020 12:42

Are these developers having a laugh?

Two building projects under construction in Chipping Barnet’s Conservation Areas are flouting planning laws. They are tests of Barnet Council’s will to enforce its planning decisions.
The landscape of the Dollis Brook, from its sources near Moat Mount to Whetstone and beyond, is a green lung for residents and visitors to Chipping Barnet, and a vital wildlife corridor. But it’s constantly threatened by human intervention.
This is the Green Belt north of Barnet (top left). Protected from development for two-thirds of a century, it’s now threatened by the expansion of Potters Bar and Borehamwood, ‘garden villages’ at Redwell and Rabley Green and housing at Ganwick Corner.
Friday, 12 June 2020 15:57

Barnet’s new regional park?

Just south-west of Arkley is a tract of unspoilt countryside – remarkable for its survival within London’s boundary, and the core of a new regional park being considered by Barnet Council to promote a greener, healthier and wilder Barnet.
Last month the Barnet Society launched an email consultation of its members about the current planning application to build 652 flats in the Victoria Quarter. 100% of our respondents so far are opposed to it.
Page 1 of 2