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Following positive results over the past two years, the council has again agreed to make free parking available every weekend in December.

As part of a £41.5million council investment, and an award of £2million National Lottery funding from Sport England, Barnet Copthall Leisure Centre will be redeveloped, creating a new facility for the community, in addition to the construction of a new leisure centre in Victoria Recreation Ground, New Barnet which replaces the existing Church Farm Leisure Centre. The Victoria Recreation Ground facility will also include a partnership library, relocated from the current East Barnet Library.

As part of the implementation of Barnet’s Parks and Open Spaces Strategy and Playing Pitch Strategy, agreed in 2016 and 2017 respectively, a number of master plans are being developed to identify the specific enhancements required to improve the chosen sites. Barnet’s collection of parks is an important part of what makes it a green borough, and the council wants to ensure they are of the best possible quality and designed with the residents and visitors who will use them in mind.

Ofsted has published its findings following its latest monitoring visit. The monitoring visit, which took place in January, is the second to take place since it judged Barnet’s Children’s Services to be in inadequate in July last year.   In its latest monitoring visit, Ofsted acknowledges that Barnet is “continuing to progress and consolidate recent improvements”, with senior leaders and managers “appropriately focused to improve and embed good quality social work practice”.

As part of National Hate Crime Awareness Week, Barnet Council launched its new Hate Crime Reporting Centres. These are based within the community so that victims of hate crime who are apprehensive about reporting to the police, can have an alternative way of reporting to a local trusted community organisation. Councillor David Longstaff, Chair of the Safer Communities Partnership Board, said:

The Creative Technology Master’s student beat off tough competition from four other budding tycoons from across the Borough to clinch the £2,000 cash prize, pop-up store at Brent Cross and ongoing expert mentoring.

Cityread 2018 will see Barnet’s libraries hosting a varied schedule of events throughout May linked to this year’s chosen book – ‘The Muse’, by bestselling author Jessie Burton. Each year, Cityread London encourages Londoners to come together to read the same book and take part in exciting literary events across the Capital. This year’s book, The Muse, is an exhilarating tale full of surprises, spanning two timelines, in two countries, but connected by one fascinating painting.

Mohsen Sabet, 51, of Laurel Way, Whetstone, was jailed for nine months in March 2015 after pleading guilty to claiming more than £35,000 in housing and council tax benefit. He illegally claimed the benefits despite at the time owning a £2million property empire, two shops and at one point having more than £800,000 deposited in a string of bank accounts.

The work, which is part of a five-year programme between 2015 and 2020, will see almost £8million spent on pavements during this financial year. Barnet has one of the largest pavement networks in the capital, totalling more than 3.5million square metres. Since work began 88 pavements have been renewed. In a survey of residents in these streets, 91 per cent of people surveyed told the council that they agreed the work was an improvement.

The council is investing £600,000 in new-generation equipment, including five large mechanical sweepers, to improve efficiency and maintain roads more vigorously all year round. The council has also obtained new street vacuums for the removal of smaller pieces of light litter. The investment is expected to save hundreds of thousands of pounds per year from the council’s budget.