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Barnet Council is to recycle illegal vapes with an estimated worth of more than £35,000 that have been seized from stores across the borough. Trading standards officers will send more than 3,500 of the products for recycling because they have more nicotine-containing e-liquid than is legally permitted, making them potentially harmful – particularly to young people.

Proposals have been released this week to create a 17-mile walking and cycling loop around most of the borough of Barnet, to help encourage more sustainable travel and improve connectivity across the borough. The Barnet Loop will enable residents to have better access to parks, green spaces, schools and a range of other amenities – and when completed will form part of TfL’s cycleways network.

The London Borough of Barnet has successfully prosecuted Amy Knight for illegally subletting her one-bedroom social housing property at no.7 Abingdon Road, Finchley. The Council’s Corporate Anti-Fraud Team (CAFT) launched an investigation in September 2018 following a referral from a subtenant seeking the return of her deposit after unknowingly renting a social housing property.

An Ofsted inspection has rated Barnet’s children’s services as ‘good’ overall, with an ‘outstanding’ rating for the services and support provided to children in care. Following an on-site visit, the inspectors found children receive “strong and effective services” from a “stable and committed leadership team [which] has continued to strengthen and enhance social work practice since the previous inspection in 2019”.

Barnet Council is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Janet Djomba as its new Director of Public Health. A public health professional with over 15 years of experience, Dr Djomba joined the council in 2019. She became Deputy Director of Public Health in Autumn 2022 and has been the acting Director of Public Health since the departure of her predecessor in December last year.

A new wetland area in the relandscaped Halliwick Recreation Ground, Muswell Hill, has today been unveiled by the Worshipful Mayor of Barnet, Tony Vourou. The first of its kind in Barnet, the £1.3m Sustainable Urban Drainage Scheme (SuDS) – as it is known technically – will divert rainwater runoff from Halliwick Recreation Ground and nearby roads towards the newly built water storage basin, reducing the extent of downstream property and road junction flooding from surface water.

Barnet has been officially awarded Borough of Sanctuary status for its efforts in welcoming those seeking a safe place to live. The Borough of Sanctuary title is awarded by the charity City of Sanctuary UK to organisations and areas that go above and beyond to welcome those looking for a safe haven.

Work is set to begin next week on the £3 million reconstruction of Hampden Way in East Barnet representing the largest investment ever in a single road by Barnet Council. The project forms part of the £97m Barnet Road and Pavement’s Investment Programme and is expected to take between nine and ten months to complete.

Barnet Council has launched a crackdown on fly-tipping at hotspot locations around the borough as part of its Caring for our Places campaign. The initiative will see a dedicated team deployed daily to clear illegally dumped waste and gather evidence so that people who fly tip can be caught and prosecuted. It comes after more than 8,000 fly-tips were reported to the council in 2023/24, with each tonne of waste costing the council £100 to clear.

Middlesex University has confirmed that Barnet Council’s Suicide Prevention Campaign, delivered in 2021, may have contributed to reducing suicide rates in the Borough. The evaluation showed that Barnet saw a significant drop in suicide rates for the three months that the campaign was live (Oct – Dec 2021) and for a further six months following the campaign's conclusion.​