Barnet Council is gearing up for an inspiring celebration of healthier, greener and safer streets, for World Car-Free Day (22 September) and Cycle to School Week (25 to 29 September), signifying an unwavering commitment to climate action and the ambitions of becoming a net zero council by 2030 and a net zero borough by 2042.

This month, Barnet Council is proud to announce that the following five School Street schemes have been made permanent, following a successful experimental traffic order trial:

Over the past year, Barnet’s Community Vaccine Champions have been working in their local communities to dispel vaccine myths, promote vaccine uptake and improve health outcomes.

As a partnership between Barnet Council and Barnet Together, the Community Vaccine Champion project funded 11 community groups with over £150,000. The project recognised the importance of tailored local approaches built on effective community engagement to reduce health inequalities.

Schools in Barnet have achieved outstanding results in the 2022 – 2023 academic year, with many schools showing improvements compared to the national average.

Almost all schools across the early years provision (birth to five years old), all the way through to key stage (KS) 5 (16 – 18 years old), have performed significantly well, with attainment scores and national averages much higher than in previous years.

Key results:

The money has been set aside as part of the newly introduced Local Flood Risk and Management Strategy (LFRMS) 2023-29, passed by the cabinet at a recent meeting.

The LFRMS highlights past instances of borough-wide flooding due to extreme rainfall, and how to address the challenges of the climate change emergency – declared by the council in 2022. The BarNET ZERO campaign has been launched to make the council net zero in carbon emissions by 2030 and for the borough as a whole by 2042.

Barnet Council has joined forces with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) as a Local Leadership Partner to elevate its local business support. Through this collaboration, Barnet is embracing FSB’s five key pledges, designed to strengthen the relationship between the council and businesses:

Barnet Council has been selected as the first local authority in London to partner with the Metropolitan Police to trial a new approach to tackling serious and organised crime on the borough’s streets.

The programme, called ‘Clear, Hold, Build’, has seen council officers and residents of Colindale’s Grahame Park Estate working with the Police to identify issues, make arrests and clear it of those threatening the safety of residents.

A Barnet Council statement on the survey of Barnet’s schools for reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC):

Yesterday (5 September), we completed our survey of the 51 schools for which the council is responsible. We can confirm that our engineering survey teams have not found any of our schools to be affected by RAAC-related issues.

A new independent report published by the Local Government Association (LGA) has praised Barnet Council for how it has “reset its relationship with residents” in the past 12 months, with a change in how decisions are made driven by the shift from a “Committee System to a ‘Strong Leader and Cabinet”.

Ten of Barnet’s most inspiring women and girls have been recognised in a new council-backed awards programme for their outstanding contribution and accomplishments in the fields of business, sport, environment and community and culture.

The inaugural InspirationAll Awards were presented to the winners and runners-up at a packed ceremony held at Middlesex University on Friday 1 September.