RETURN TO SENDER: CHRISTMAS GIFT FROM BARNET COUNCIL ...
Councillors are set to vote in favour of us losing our library on 10th January 2021.
The plan is to move our community library, the "flagship library of Barnet" and the last of our civic buildings that hasn't yet been handed to Middlesex University from its grand, iconic, much-loved 100-year-old home - where Eileen Colwell created children's libraries - into part of the glass-fronted ground floor of a hulking, new accommodation block due to be crammed into a residential and conservation area.
On the Friday before Christmas we discovered NOT from Barnet Council but by chance via the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities that Hendon Hub Planning Applications are due to be considered on 10TH JANUARY by councillors on the Strategic Planning Committee. This is around the time Omicron is predicted to reach 600k-2m cases a day and we'll likely be in a version of lockdown again.
We don't know when Barnet Council are planning to inform us of this.
We feel this is outrageous because residents need to co-ordinate and prepare their speeches for the meeting - only 1-2 people can speak per Planning Application depending on whether a supporter has requested to speak too.
Unlike Barnet Council and Middlesex University, we don't have a host of employees working for us. We’re just a bunch of people with full-time jobs & families trying to be heard any way we can. It's so disappointing that, yet again, hell-bent on steam-rolling these atrocious development plans through, Barnet Council show a complete disregard for the people who live here.
A senior Tory cllr told us earlier this year “Voting against the Hendon Hub would be political suicide”. Out of 12 committee members on 10th January, 7 are Tories. We hope they put people over politics, go back to the drawing board and scale these plans down so there is no need to continue with our actions.
Either way, our Judicial Review claim is right now in front of a judge, decision due any day. (Watch this space!) And in addition to appeals to the UN and Secretary of State's office which are in progress, we will be utilising every means possible to get these Hendon Hub plans scaled down so that they equally benefit the community and the university.
BIG THANKS TO YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT THIS YEAR.
One last thing ...
OUR VIRTUAL POP-UP T-SHIRT SHOP CLOSES IN 24 HOURS
Last chance to buy a Hendon or Save Our Library themed T-shirt!
SOCIAL MEDIA
FACEBOOK - HENDON RESIDENTS PLANNING FORUM
#SaveHendon #HandsOffOurLibrary #SaveOurCommunity
May your Christmas be merry and Covid-free!