Sunday 10th March 2024

Commercial Events in Oak Hill Park

My contacts in Enfield informed me that there will be no events in Trent Park this year. Two of the festivals, for Mauritius and Ghana, decided that it costs too much to manage events in Enfield so have decided to move them to Oak Hill Park instead.

I had a meeting with Barnet Council's Highways Liaison Officer who has been liaising with Enfield regarding Trent Park, but he only knew these organisers were trying for Barnet but had no details. 

So I wrote to the two organisers, and asked for a meeting to discuss what arrangements they would put in place for managing traffic, parking, and security in our park.

My contacts spotted a post on Instagram advertising the Mauritius festival in our park on Sunday 14th July. I asked the organisers again, and EB councillor Phil Cohen and I met them on Tuesday. They said the post was just to raise awareness and anticipation in the community, they don't have a licence from Barnet Council yet. 

So it was surprising that a day or two after meeting them, they have put tickets on sale!

Phil Cohen has confirmed that they do not have a licence, and they have not engaged with ward councillors or other stakeholders. So we don't know what will be put in place to manage the events. The organisers told me they will encourage attendees to use a free shuttle bus service from and to Arnos Grove tube station and not bring cars. They will put signage on nearby roads saying not to park there...

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East Barnet Community Festival

The free, community festival was cancelled last year and has really struggled to gain enough funding to be viable this year, but it is still planned to go ahead on 28th to 30th June:

Stalls are filling up fast but there's still space for great crafters, artists, plant & ornament stalls. Please note there are now NO catering, drink or Ice Cream concessions available.

You can find out more information on their website and Facebook page.

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Community Food Growing 

EBRA committee member and Incredible Edible Barnet mastermind Wendy Alcock writes:

"This is a new project I am working on with the council to try and get more community food gardens started in the borough. It's a one year project with four new spaces being created with the intention of supporting people to start new community food gardens in schools, libraries, parks, health centres, anywhere they like for their community. One of the four spaces, that I will be running, is in Saxon Field and so it would be great to get local people involved." 

Click/tap the poster for more information and the form to express an interest in the project

For those who don't know, Saxon Field is the local name for the Church Farm Open Space (between Avondale Avenue and Church Hill Road) which is now maintained by the council as part of Oak Hill Park. Wendy says the garden is likely to be to the north of the field by the hedge and will only be about 100 sq m so won't take much room out of the wider park. It will be fenced but will be open to all. It will be fairly close to St Mary's church and the new rectory - Wendy has already met with the rector Alec Corio and he's very supportive.

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East Barnet School Floodlights

We have been keeping an eye on the proposal to install floodlights on the all-weather sports pitch at East Barnet School. Some neighbours in Ridgeway Avenue and Daneland are concerned that the result could be noise from sports continuing into the evenings when they expect to relax in their gardens.

Councillor Simon Radford, our MP Theresa Villiers, and I have been in touch with the governors and head teacher for the past year or so, asking about their plans, but they were not very forthcoming.

Last week I spotted that their planning application went live on the Council's website:

The above is from the Design and Access document - I did not truncate that last sentence, it's an example of careless proofreading - must try harder!

They don't seem to address residents' concerns about noise in the evenings, merely stating "noise levels would be similar to that of the summer months. The School however, take this concern on board..." Other concerns, like any impact on wildlife, are claimed to be addressed in the ecological assessment. But that document is so ludicrously redacted that it's meaningless!

You can view the details and make any comments on the planning portal here: go.eastbar.net/EBS_floodlights 

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Village Signage

When I was talking to Dane McKnight (the Council's Highways Liaison Officer) about events in the park, he mentioned that Simon Radford has secured council funding to replace the old welcome signs in East Barnet Village. In the absence of a Traders' Association, he asked me to publicise the idea and ask for suggestions:

The old sign says "Welcome To EAST BARNET village" without much emphasis on VILLAGE whereas the recent one for Arkley says "ARKLEY VILLAGE" and has a nice graphic of a windmill. What do you think would be a good graphic to use for our Village? Please reply to this newsletter and I'll pass comments on to Simon and Dane.

Thank you.

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Licensing Consultations

Barnet Council are consulting on:

• Licensing Policy: "We are currently consulting on our updated Licensing Policy, which outlines what will be considered when businesses apply for permission to sell alcohol, carry out regulated entertainment such as live music, film or dancing or sell hot drinks and hot food between 11pm and 5am." link here
• Street Trading: "Street trading is the selling, offering or exposing for sale of any item or service in the street. This includes stalls (including Market stalls), shop-front displays, cafe tables and chairs with service, mobile traders & Advertisement ‘A’ Boards." link here

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Prince of Wales - Reprieve?

The nomination which I put together on behalf of EBRA to have the Prince listed as an asset of community value (ACV) was accepted by the Leader of the Council during the meeting on Monday 26th February [confirmation letter here] and officially listed later that day on the Council's website.

This means that if or when the owners Stonegate sell the pub, we will be alerted and have an opportunity to consider options, including the community making a bid to buy it.

Nick Jones of the Barnet Society has been sounding out his journalism contacts and reports that a spokesperson for Stonegate said, “We can confirm we are currently in the final stages of selling The Prince of Wales to another pub company. Whilst the Prince of Wales will no longer be part of the Stonegate Group, we hope to see the site continue to be a central part of the East Barnet community and wish the new owners the very best of luck with the venue.”

This looks very positive, and it's encouraging to see Stonegate acknowledge the community aspect. But we shall of course remain vigilant until we know who the new owners would be and what their plans are.

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Victoria Quarter

The next strategic planning committee meeting to conclude the decision about the Victoria Quarter planning application is this Wednesday 13th March. The developers have taken the opportunity provided by the adjournment to submit more information to the committee. More details, and minutes of the adjourned meeting are in the agenda on the council's website.

In the meantime, as a taste of the disruption to come when the whole site is redeveloped, Victoria Road is closed for the installation of upgraded power cables.

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AGM Report

Our AGM was on Wednesday 28th February and well attended by about 40 residents to go through the constitutional formalities and discuss local issues. I've produced some notes for information [PDF here]. Please let me know if there are any errors or omissions. Thank you.

I have decided that at next year's AGM I will probably stand down from the multiple roles of secretary, membership secretary, treasurer, newsletter editor, website and Facebook curator, etc. 

I would be delighted to hand over these roles to some younger people to keep the Association running. Please let me know if you might be interested, and we can have a chat about what the roles involve, and perhaps start working together for the rest of this year. Thank you.

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Best regards,

Rob White

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