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Barnet is laying on free festive fun for all this season, lighting up its highstreets, putting up Christmas trees and Menorahs in town centres, and hosting Christmas markets and events for residents and visitors. Sixteen sites across the borough will be illuminated from 1 December, and the council is hosting the Christmas Fayre on Sunday December 4 in Chipping Barnet with Santa’s grotto, market stalls, fun-rides and entertainment.

Barnet Council discovered 13 tenants living in the house in Hillside Gardens, Edgware, after complaints about waste storage and nuisance behaviour were made to its Community Safety team. An eight-month-old baby was found living with a couple in a converted loft accessed via a steep, twisting staircase with no handrail or lighting, leading to a low-ceilinged landing.

A teacher walked nearly 20 miles and visited 70 Barnet schools in one day to raise £1,400 for charity. The idea arose when Barnet Council’s Steve Marshall ditched his car and instead delivered packages to 13 schools by foot and public transport back in June 2023. He thought it would take him all day, but in fact found time to visit an extra school and still be back in his Colindale office by 2pm.

Following the heavy snow from Sunday evening, 11 December, some services have been affected across the council. Gritting took place over the weekend and throughout the night and all main roads are flowing. Gritting teams have now moved onto secondary roads and town centres. Footway gritting is being undertaken, but with freezing temperatures expected to continue, we are advising that everyone takes extra care when making journeys. Service status:

To become a champion, all residents need to do is report hate crime when they encounter it. The best place to do it is through the True Vision website at www.report-it.org.uk – which is accessible from any computer or mobile device. Residents can also go directly to the police by phoning 101, or 999 in the case of an emergency.

The service, which was initially rolled out at Barnet’s four Core Plus Libraries in June, allows residents to pick up and return books and other library items of their choice. Since June, library staff have loaned more than 19,000 items as part of the initiative, including well over 10,000 individual books for children and young people.

The focus of this year’s Libraries Week is a celebration of the role libraries play in the digital world and the ways in which they are helping to engage people through technology, in building digital skills and supporting people’s health wellbeing and education.

This year’s Barnet Civic Awards were presented to members of the public and organisations that have performed outstanding voluntary work in their local communities. They were awarded at a special ceremony at Hendon Town Hall on Wednesday 6 April. This year’s awards were divided into two categories: ‘Lifetime Achievement’ and ‘Outstanding Service to the Community’.

Barnet Council is pleased to announce it has selected three preferred partners to run its four new partnership libraries. The partnership libraries, which will be set up by the groups in close collaboration with the council, will launch across the borough from 1 April 2017.

Members voted in favour of delivering the new youth facility at the preferred location, subject to planning, as part of the redevelopment and regeneration of the playing fields, during the council’s Assets, Regeneration and Growth Committee meeting on Monday 30th November. The announcement comes after members voted unanimously in support of the exciting plans in September, which will see a purpose-built Youth Zone open seven-days-a-week with more than 20 activities on offer every session for young people aged 8-19, or up to 25 for those with a disability.