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Golf course landfill plan: questions that need answering

A scheme to re-landscape much of the Old Fold Manor Golf Club at Hadley Common that involves felling mature trees along half a mile of the St Albans Road needs to be explained in much greater detail before being granted planning permission by Barnet Council.

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Barnet Council says no to free parking – but campaign goes on

A joint attempt by the Barnet Society and the Barnet Times to persuade Barnet Council to introduce a period of free car parking to boost trade in the borough’s high streets was rejected by the environment committee.

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UK’s first purpose-build co-housing starts in Barnet

A group of feisty women, happy to be renowned for their stubbornness, gathered in Union Street, Barnet, for a ceremony marking the start of construction on a unique project – the first purpose-built co-housing scheme of its kind in the country.

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Visiting BT executive to resolve broadband speed fiasco?

British Telecom has promised to send an executive to High Barnet in mid- March to meet the Chipping Barnet MP, Theresa Villiers, and local residents to discuss the lack of high-speed broadband in many of the roads in and around the town centre.

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2,500 back free parking campaign

Roger Aitken signing the petition at the Christmas Fair with Robin Bishop, Mary Carroll and Teresa Kelly

Almost 2,000 people visiting shops and other premises in the High Street have signed the Barnet Society’s petition calling on Barnet Council to consider offering an hour’s free parking to help the town’s retailers.

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Catering skills of Barnet students put to test

Catering and tourism students from Barnet and Southgate College are gaining work experience at High Barnet’s newest pop-up shop, a family-friendly tea shop that has opened in the Spires shopping centre.

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Parking claims another casualty

High Barnet’s “impossible” parking controls are forcing another independent trader out of the High Street.

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No to free parking say Council and MP

Theresa Villiers MP, Gordon Massey (Chair of BRA) and Councillor David Longstaff all oppose the petition

Councillor David Longstaff has joined Mrs Theresa Villiers MP and Gordon Massey, chairman of Barnet Residents Association, in opposing the Barnet Society’s petition calling for an hour’s free parking to help win back shoppers to the High Street.

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Two more shops forced out of High Street

Another two independent traders are being forced out of the High Street by a combination of high rents and the chronic difficulties faced by shoppers confronted by High Barnet’s expensive and inordinately complicated parking regime.

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Packed programme for Barnet Fair

A packed programme has been arranged for this year’s Barnet Christmas Fair on Sunday 7 December when, instead of traffic, there will be music and dancing in the High Street and a vast array of stalls and attractions in nearby venues.

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Police baffled by High Barnet’s parking

Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, who is Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, admits that that even her police protection officers cannot work out where it is possible to park in High Barnet town centre.

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Dire broadband speeds to stay, warns MP

High Barnet needs another nine additional cabinets to complete the roll-out of high-speed broadband

The Barnet Society’s campaign to force British Telecom to complete High Barnet’s roll-out of high-speed broadband will get the continued support of Theresa Villiers, the Chipping Barnet MP, but she has warned that many local householders will fail to get an improved service.

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Barnet’s Old MacDonald’s Farm

For the last 50 years Barnet children have needed to go no further than Wood Street to catch a glimpse of a scene that brings to life that much-loved nursery rhyme “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”.

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SOS our town centre is dying

Photo: Martin Standley
Photo: Martin Standley

The Barnet Society is launching a Save Our High Street appeal: our town centre desperately needs more shoppers and we hope local businesses and other organisations, as well as local residents will join our campaign.

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Former Barnet MP dies

Family, friends and constituents have been paying tribute to Sir Sydney Chapman, the former Conservative MP for Chipping Barnet for just over a quarter of a century, who died in early October.

His funeral was held (22.10.2014) at St Mary’s Church, Lower Heyford, Oxfordshire, where he had lived for some years since his retirement from politics.

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Another independent trader closes

Saturday shoppers queued up in disbelief to read a bailiff’s notice posted on the front door of the Oasis coffee shop in the Spires shopping centre – the seventh business to have closed within the complex in recent months.

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Telling the time once again

Barnet church has its clock back at last! For almost a month High Barnet residents looked in vain when needing to check the time, but the tower of the town’s famous landmark is resplendent once more.

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