| | | | Friday 1st September 2023 | | | | Dear Guest, here are some updates and information: | | | | ASB In Oak Hill Park Car Park | | We've been trying to solve the problem of anti-social behaviour in the Oak Hill Park car park for years, since the Council decided to stop locking the barrier at dusk. "Boy Racers" frequently meet there to perform 'donuts', let off fireworks, play loud music, etc which disturbs nearby residents, particularly in the Almshouses. We've been reporting issues to the police, and the Council's Community Safety officer, and at our AGM on 1st March we appealed for help from the ward councillors present. One difficulty is that the car park is in East Barnet ward, whereas the residents are in Brunswick Park ward, with the boundary being at the gate itself. But BP councillor Tony Vorou has been working with EB councillor Simon Radford to try to get things moving. They received this response from the police (edited for clarity): "Please find list of actions the local police took since the report surfaced and came to our attention. - Barnet CST have taken the lead on the issues as most actions concern permanent structures; with a key holder scheme being investigated, putting a pay and display with a barrier, CCTV/ANPR which all falls within the council. They gave an open ECINS 665172.
- The Council also issued CPNWs to four identified vehicles and police have added it into our Crimint (intel dev) system.
- A TaFG meeting was held.
- Council made request to traffic teams asking them to have refs at the location but local SNT haven’t been updated about this
- SNT have conducted several patrols around the location ( our shift patterns does not align with the times the issues are reported- often after 0100am. Local SNT when conducting proactive patrols haven’t directly witnessed such incidents). Safer Transport and Brunswick Park SNT officers also patrol the car park when they are available.
- In the past 16 weeks there have been five CADs with an ASB closing code for Oak Hill park and surrounding roads, none are relevant to the car park off Parkside Gardens.
- SNT team will keep attention to the park and issues whilst out and about.
I would also gently like to remind SNT resources are limited and we do get abstracted a lot with no intel for us to act on we will be putting this on our casual attention list.
Siddhartha Bhandari
Acting Police Sergeant High Barnet, East Barnet, Barnet Vale & Whetstone SNT NW Metropolitan Police Service"
Cllr Tony Vorou has also written to some residents to say: I am pleased to say that after liaising with the Parks Dept. I am virtually there with regards to finding a solution to the access to the car park issue at night. The officers and myself just need to look at the options available for this and to finalise how it will be implemented . The problem arises as the car park is officially in East Barnet Ward and you are a Brunswick Park resident. But, I believe I have now found a way around this. I will keep you informed on my progress. | | | | | | | |
If you acted on the advice in the previous newsletter to set up auto pay for any non-compliant vehicles, that's great.
However, one of our members has warned that if you subsequently sell your car, please remember to remove it from auto pay, otherwise if the new owner is detected inside the ULEZ, you will still be charged! It happened to him and he's still trying to get his money back...
And please remember to only trust pages on the tfl.gov.uk domain, because other websites could be a scam, as Which reports. | | | | | | Parkside Gardens Zebra Crossing | |
I keep asking about this, and the latest reply from Brunswick Park councillor Paul Lemon is "At the last area committee meeting officers confirmed that Parkside Gardens zebra will now be implemented in Q3 (23/24)"
Presumably that means Oct-Dec 2023.
We're looking forward to it, after all these years! | | | | | | | |
Our colleagues at CLARA have forwarded the news from TfL that the small car park is closing to enable them to improve the train depot at Cockfosters. The large car park should remain open for park-and-ride. TfL say:
"We are working to upgrade the Piccadilly line and are investing £2.9bn to modernise our service to help it run more reliably, safely, inclusively and sustainably which will ultimately see the introduction of new trains to the fleet in early 2025. Once delivered, customers will benefit from a 23 per cent uplift in peak capacity with trains operating at 27 trains per hour. Details about the programme can be found here. As part of the programme, we are upgrading and re-organising our existing train depot at Cockfosters and Oakwood and have started preparatory works ahead of the installation of new track and placement of new maintenance and staff facilities. While much of the work will be contained within the grounds of the depot some works will result in an impact to our car park facilities. From 1 September 2023 the small car park and car wash located to the south of Cockfosters station will close to the public. The main NCP car park to the north of Cockfosters station will remain open. It might be necessary for some spaces in the main car park to close to ensure safety for the public and the team on site, but notice will be given to customers prior to any reduction in spaces." | | | | | | | | Bowmer+Kirkland, the contractors developing Phase 0 and Phase 1 of the plans have issued a newsletter: | | | | tap/click the image to read the PDF | | | | | | | | 84 / 84B Barnet to St Albans
Thanks to funding by Hertsmere and Hertfordshire County Council, most of the old 84 route which was cancelled by TfL, has been restored. The hourly 84B route starts on Monday 4th September to enable residents and employees in Herts to get to High Barnet and Barnet Hospital, and Barnet residents to get to Potters Bar and St Albans. More detail on the Barnet Residents' Association website and the Barnet Society.
107 New Barnet to Edgware EB councillor Phil Cohen forwarded this from TfL: "From Saturday 7 October, route 107, which operates between New Barnet station and Edgware station via Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, will have its frequency increased at certain times. On Monday to Friday, buses in the early morning (before 06:00 towards New Barnet and before 07:00 towards Edgware) will run every 15 minutes instead of 20 minutes and buses in the late evening (from about 20:00) will run every 15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes. On Saturday, buses in the early morning (before 0830 towards New Barnet and 0900 towards Edgware) and late evening (after 1930 towards New Barnet and 2100 towards Edgware) will run every 15 minutes instead of every 30 minutes. On Sundays, buses will run every 15 minutes from first bus to last bus, which is an increase to the current Sunday frequency of buses running every 30 minutes in the early morning and evening, and every 20 minutes during the day. There are no changes to the frequency at any other time or to the times of the first and last buses."
| | | | | | Barnet's Carbon Reduction | | East Barnet councillor Simon Radford writes:
As part of the BarNet Zero ambition, the following community campaign has been launched. It would be great if groups in East Barnet were willing and able to take part.
"Barnet Council is excited about the launch of our Carbon Reduction Crowdfund, an initiative that empowers community groups to take the lead in creating a more sustainable borough.
In collaboration with community fundraising platform Spacehive, we're offering up to £15,000 in funding to support local environmental projects. Our goal is to work together to drive positive change and move closer to our BarNET ZERO ambitions of becoming a net zero carbon council by 2042.
The application process is designed to cater to various project scales, from small to large, with projects being considered under the following tiers: - Tier 1: Funding for small-scale projects that reduce carbon emissions, and for developing climate action plans and delivering training that will support reduction in carbon emissions. E.g., community campaigns, purchasing bikes for the community. Up to £1000 or 50% of the value of the project.
- Tier 2: Funding for carbon reduction measures, e.g. for replacing lightbulbs with LEDs, purchasing electric bikes for the community, Up to £2,500 or 50% of the value of the project.
- Tier 3: Funding for large-scale carbon reduction and retrofit projects, e.g. insulation retrofitting or solar panel installation. Up to £15,000 or 50% of the value of the project
Community groups can register and join us on 14 September, from 1-2pm, to learn more at our online workshop
Applications for the Barnet Carbon Reduction Crowdfund must be received by 8 November. To find out more visit crowdfundbarnet "
| | | | | | | | It has been difficult to find a space to park in the Village car park for many years, partly because it's abused by long-term parking. It is potentially a hugely valuable resource for shoppers and others visiting the Village, and I've been discussing options with EB councillor Phil Cohen. Yesterday Phil and I met with Craig Miller, the director of Barnet's Street Scene department, and his colleague Phin Skipper. | | | | We stood in the lower part of the car park, and while chatting I took some photos. It's shocking to see how many vehicles are not street legal, the MoT of one of them even expired in March 2021!
I've invited Craig and Phin to come to our meeting on 20th September, so we can discuss what the Council could potentially do to help reclaim the car park. To help prepare for the meeting, I've put together an informal survey here, it would be helpful if you could please let us know what you think. I must stress that this is just exploring options to help with parking in the village, nothing more.
It's worth noting that the only way to get NSL (Barnet's parking enforcement contractors) to check on vehicles in the car park is to introduce charging. Drivers would need to use the PayByPhone mobile app and register on arrival. The Council would also have to find a budget to mark out the car park properly.
Again, nothing has been decided or even proposed yet, this is just asking the Council what they could perhaps do to help. Please fill in the survey and come to our meeting on 20th September to chat with the Council officers.
Thank you! | | | | | | | | A reminder that we'll be holding a members' meeting at the new Community Hall at St Mary's Church on Wednesday 20th September at 7:30pm Please let me know if you have any items you'd like to add to the agenda. Thank you. | | | | | | | | You are receiving this email because you joined EBRA. If you unsubscribe you will LEAVE EBRA | | | | | |
