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Barnet residents, partners and local organisations are invited to read the draft framework which covers 2016 to 2021 and respond before the deadline of 13 November. The feedback will help the council test its proposed vision and commitments, to encourage a collaborative approach to creating a more active and healthy borough. The draft framework also involved working with partners in health, including housing associations, developers, and transport and other community providers.

Barnet Council has been awarded £324,000 to help renovate Silkstream Valley parks, Silkstream Park and Montrose Playing Fields. The development of these green spaces will include two new playgrounds, new facilities for sports such as basketball, parkour and tennis, a café, events spaces and more. In a separate development, Barnet Council was also awarded funding of nearly £80,000 from the Environment Agency Water Environment Improvement Fund to go towards the river restoration element of the Silk Stream & Montrose Parks project.

The Inside Housing Development Awards are an opportunity to celebrate the very best residential development across the UK from the past year. With 13 categories recognising schemes, teams and solutions, there is a category to suit all the key players, including landlords, developers, architects and funders.

Teams cleared overgrown vegetation and rubbish from the gardens of three properties in the borough after the owners failed to heed official notices requiring them to clear their land. The owners will now have to foot the bill for the work being carried out. At one of the properties in Gaydon Lane, Colindale, teams removed around four trailer loads of rubbish from the front and back gardens.

The consultation, which runs until 29 February, gives people the chance to help shape what the Barnet Safer Communities Partnership should concentrate on in 2016/17. The partnership is made up of a number of organisations including the council, Metropolitan Police, Fire Service, Victim Support, Probation Service and Middlesex University. The consultation is intended to gather people’s perceptions of crime and anti-social behaviour in their area, their feelings about how well the partnership is tackling crime and what the 2016/17 priorities should be.

The Autumn 2016 Residents’ Perception Survey reveals that 85 per cent of people questioned are satisfied with living in Barnet, with 81 per cent agreeing people from different ethnic backgrounds get on well together. 78 per cent of residents think it is a family friendly place to live. Asked about the work of the council, 78 per cent of residents questioned say they think the council is doing a good job, with almost two thirds agreeing it provides good value for their Council Tax. Overall, 71 per cent of residents say they are satisfied with the way the council runs things.

The annual competition received a number of outstanding entries and is open to students at Middlesex University London, Barnet & Southgate College, recent Middlesex alumni, and Barnet residents with a new business idea or social enterprise that is less than two year’s old. The Entrepreneurial Barnet Competition is organised collaboratively by Middlesex University London, Barnet Council, Barnet and Southgate College and generously supported by Hammerson PLC, which hosted the final at its headquarters in King's Cross.

The annual United Nations led campaign is an international awareness initiative aimed at ending the harmful practice of FGM. Globally, the UN estimates that at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM. Although numbers of cases in Barnet are relatively low, FGM is thought to be an underreported issue and raising awareness is important.

The annual ceremony was held on the 28 January in the Rickett Quadrangle at Middlesex University’s campus in The Burroughs, Hendon. This year, the theme of Holocaust Memorial Day was the “power of words”. The speakers this year included Det Chief Superintendent Simon Rose – Met Police Barnet Borough Commander, Professor Tim Blackman – Vice Chancellor Middlesex University, Mr Simon Bentley – Chair of Yad Vashem UK Foundation. Students from Woodhouse 6th Form College who visited Auschwitz were also in attendance and made the Barnet Statement of Commitment.