What should be the future priorities for High Barnet? The creation of local employment and a successful town centre or the continued loss of jobs through the demolition of business premises to make way for additional housing?

So great is the pressure for new residential development that High Barnet has recently lost several of its largest industrial and commercial sites and more are due to be replaced or are under threat.

New flats and houses at the recently completed Lightfield development – see above – were built just off the High Street on the site of Brake Shear House after the closure and demolition of a well-established group of workshops and small businesses.

A residents’ survey seeking views on possibilities for skills training, job creation and town centre employment is being conducted by Barnet Council as it prepares a new economic development framework for the borough.

The new framework will assess Barnet’s current economic strengths and weaknesses and aims to shape the borough’s future economy.

Discussions have already been held with representatives of residents and business and community groups. The deadline for responses to an online questionnaire has been extended to Sunday 18 August.

For more information about Barnet Economic Development Framework, visit

https://www.engage.barnet.gov.uk/ and to take part in the survey visit

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/barnet-economy

Feedback from the consultation and questionnaire will be assessed in October and the aim will be to create a set of guiding principles for future action.

The focus will be on job creation, training and skills opportunities for residents; support for local businesses and entrepreneurs; physical and policy changes to town centres and employment spaces; and allocation of economic funding and resources.

Whatever the future development framework might propose, the loss of more of High Barnet’s workshops, warehouses and commercial premises now seems certain with several housing projects having been given the go ahead and others at an advanced planning stage.

Three of the largest proposed schemes are in Moxon Street, again just off the High Street.

An application has been made to replace offices and warehouses at Intec House with a seven-storey redevelopment to provide 98 homes.

This project is now the subject of a planning appeal following the withdrawal of an earlier plan which was approved; an unresolved dispute with Barnet Council over a lack of affordable housing; and objections from neighbouring residents who consider a seven-storey block of flats would be out of character with the area.

Planning approval has already been granted for a five-storey block to provide 41 homes to replace the adjoining Moxon Street premises of Howdens Joinery.

Another Moxon Street scheme which also has planning permission is a scheme to deliver 21 new homes on the site of commercial and warehouse buildings fronting both Moxon Street and Tapster Street.

 Other new residential developments involving the loss of commercial premises include plans for new housing on part of the Queens Road industrial estate, off Wood Street, and part of the Meadow Works off the Great North Road where around 20 small companies are based.

Perhaps the largest of all the proposed redevelopments is a plan – currently in abeyance – to build five blocks of flats to provide 280 homes on the site of The Spires shopping centre and the adjoining and recently re-opened Chipping Close car park.

The long-term future of The Spires – and the continuing loss of High Street shops – is the overriding concern of one of the organisations urging residents and community groups to take part in Barnet Council’s consultation on future economic development within the borough.

Love Barnet founder Gail Laser welcomed the council’s initiative to develop a future framework and hoped that it would result in more attention being paid to the needs of High Barnet and more investment.

For too long the council had concentrated its efforts on regenerating the west of the borough and the result locally had been a lack of interest in reviving High Barnet town centre and a reluctance to change.

Ms Laser regretted the lack of master plan for the town centre which had led to the loss of shops and secure employment. Instead, the High Street offered a plethora of burger bars, cafes, cake shops, barbers and nail bars.

One complaint was the failure to control the blight caused by the uncontrolled parking of scooters and motor bikes being used by fast-food delivery riders.

Ms Laser said the nuisance to pedestrians caused by riders waiting for orders – especially outside McDonald’s – had made it more difficult to find tenants for nearby empty shops.

Her hope is that the framework engagement will address the reasons why there has been so little investment in High Barnet and a lack of enforcement to restrain ugly shop fronts which were a blot on the conservation area status that was intended to protect much of the High Street.