NEWS & VIEWS
No Planet B
An evening of sustainability talks and discussion were held at Omved Gardens on 7 July. Each speaker was given five minutes to present their work around issues including bees, pesticides, seed collection and food security. The event was organised by OmVed Gardens,...
Re-imagining Highgate
The Re-imagining Highgate Community Drawing Workshop was one of the many events that took place during the Highgate Festival. The HNF hosted a workshop where we gathered ideas and drawings from pupils at St Michael's and Highgate Primary schools. With help from the...
Highgate Arts Festival 2018
The Highgate Festival has been revived to celebrate all the things the community love about Highgate.
Neighbourhood Forum Spring
Spring has finally sprung and the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum has been busy. We have successfully been redesignated by both councils ensuring our community benefits from the opportunities offered by the Localism Act and has access to the powers and funds offered by...
Highgate Coffee and Computers
Need advice about using a computer, tablet or smartphone? Whether it’s emails, the Internet, storing family photos, it’s never too late to learn. Come to one of our sessions, which are informal and relaxed and offer one to one help. Sessions are held most Fridays at...
What should Highgate do with its kerb side?
When Camden announced that it was going to review the provision of CPZ spaces in the CA-U zone (see the Forum blog and the map below), The Forum and Highgate Society decided to do some research to find out more about the availability of kerb space in that part of the...
Bike hangars – a good thing?
We have two - only two! - bike hangars in the Forum area. Are they a good thing? One hangar (on Hillcrest) is reportedly well-used while the other (on Winchester Road) is not. The lack of hangars is odd as, as the map shows, there are hundreds east of Highgate. Why...
Parking – the Camden CA-U review
Camden has announced that it is reviewing the hours of operation of the CPZ that covers Highgate. We expect the consultation document to hit doorsteps shortly. It is expected that the consultation and the implementation of any changes will take place in advance of the...
Applying for redesignation
The Highgate Neighbourhood Forum is now five years old. This means that under the terms of the Localism Act it has to apply for redesignation. The official consultation is being carried out by Haringey and Camden councils.The Forum has already made a major difference...
The Forum’s transport research
Camden has said that it will soon consult on extending CPZ hours in the CA-U zone. The Forum will stay "neutral" on the issue but is keen to see that the consultation is a fair one and that any changes that result suit the streets affected and are sensible for...
Highgate’s pollution
Two major transport themes in the Forum's work in 2018 will be buses and parking. A core on these issues is pollution: Highgate High Street, Highgate Hill and Archway Road have above legal levels of air pollution. This blog sets out the background and summarises the...
Moving ahead post-referendum
Apologies for the hiatus in news, but after a post-referendum summer break we have been busy developing the future work of the Neighbourhood Forum. We are committed to ensure that Highgate benefits from the opportunities offered by the Localism Act and has access to...
Big majority in Highgate Referendum
The Highgate Neighbourhood Forum is celebrating the big Yes vote in the Highgate Neighbourhood Referendum on Thursday July 6. The Plan was backed by 88% of the 2,361 people who voted. Turnout was 18.2% – the equivalent of a council by-election vote. It made history as...
What’s in the Neighbourhood Plan? A summary
The Highgate Neighbourhood Plan is a long and complicated document, which has to be written in "planning speak" as it will – if passed at Referendum – become the the planning regulations for Highgate. What follows is, hopefully, a clear summary of its contents. You...
Final Plan published
We have now published the final version of the Highgate Neighbourhood Plan, which will be put to the voters of Highgate at a Referendum in July. You can read it here.
Join or help our Coffee and Computers sessions
Free drop-in sessions Need advice about using a computer, tablet or smartphone? Whether it’s emails, the Internet, storing family photos, it’s never too late to learn. Come to one of our sessions, which are informal and relaxed and offer one to one help. Sessions are...
New Hoppa bus routes for discussion
We are talking to neighbouring communities and the Councils about two new Hoppa Bus routes to link Highgate to local shopping centres, hospitals and schools. Tell us what you think about the proposed routes and get in touch if you would like to help with the campaign....
Air quality update
The Highgate community crowd-funded a second air quality survey and this blog presents the results. The main conclusions: 1. Highgate’s main thoroughfares still have illegal levels of (NO2) air pollution. 2. Overall air quality has not changed in the last year – where...
CIL spending list
We have published the results of the poll on the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) spending list we undertook during the Consultation on our Draft Neighbourhood Plan from 14 December 2015 until 7 February 2016. The ideas you voted on arose out of the work on the...
Neighbourhood Plan passed at referendum on July 6
Highgate gave the Neighbourhood Plan a resounding 88% Yes vote on July 6. It is already being used by the Councils for planning applications. Thanks to all those who campaigned for the vote and, of course, to all those who worked on the Plan.
Vote for the Neighbourhood Plan
The Neighbourhood Plan is being put to a public referendum on Thursday 6 July. Everyone on the Electoral Roll in the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum Area will receive a polling card in the usual way. We hope you will support the plan prepared over the last few years by...
Help us Beat the Bounds of Highgate
Join us as local historians Michael Hammerson and Peter Barber guide us round Highgate's green boundary. Meet at 1.30 pm on Sunday 11 June at the Merton Lane entrance to Hampstead Heath. Walk either clockwise or anticlockwise round the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum...
Nominations for Forum Committee 2017/18
The list of nominees, the AGM agenda and Treasurer's Report can be found here. The Chair's Report will be posted shortly.
AGM and launch of Plan on May 8
We will be holding our 2017 AGM on Monday 8 May at 7.30pm at Lauderdale House, Highgate Hill. Catherine West MP and our local Councillors will fittingly be there to help us launch the first cross-Borough Neighbourhood Plan. Please join us to hear more about the Plan...
Air quality testing – second round
Thanks to the generosity of Highgate residents we were able to collect enough money to have a second round of air quality testing. We have spent the last few days putting up sensors. We will have the results in about six weeks. The results of last year's...
Plan Referendum will be on July 6
Camden and Haringey Councils will hold a referendum on the Highgate Neighbourhood Plan on July 6, 2017. All those on the electoral roll and living in the Forum area will be eligible to vote. We hope everyone will make an effort to do so as the higher the turnout and...
Plan Examiner’s Report published
We are pleased to say that the Independent Examiner of our Neighbourhood Plan (Jill Kingaby of Intelligent Plans) has now submitted her Report. It is highly supportive of our efforts and her approach is neatly summed up in her final paragraph: "I appreciate that the...
Neighbourhood Plan under examination
Camden and Haringey Councils formally consulted on the Highgate Neighbourhood Plan in November 2016 and the responses they received can be viewed here. You can also read correspondence from the Independent Examiner and the Forum's response to the comments from the...
Haringey plans for “The Bank”
The Forum wishes to make it clear that this piece represents the personal view of Simon Briscoe and does not represent the view of the Forum as a whole. The more observant residents of the area around Highgate Hill will have noticed signs on lamp posts that set out...
Highgate’s air quality at illegal levels
Highgate’s main roads have illegal and health-damaging levels of air pollution according to the first set of results from the community’s survey. The readings are summarised in the map which allocates each result to one of five categories: purple pins show the...
Maximum traffic weight in Highgate
Some will have seen or heard that Haringey consulted in July about setting common weight limits for traffic over a part of Highgate. The Forum has written to Haringey to say that the proposal should be rejected. Currently the weight limit signs (applying to through...
Community Energy Project in Highgate
Following receipt of planning approval Power Up North London (PUNL) are finalising details of a 19KWp solar panel installation for St Anne’s Church in Highgate West Hill. PUNL is a community energy company formed in 2014 by three local Transition Town groups, to...
Clean air in N6 – AGM review
Highgate's air is polluted but the community can be hopeful that plans will be in place to make it cleaner, was the message that attendees took away from the speakers at the Forum's AGM on Wednesday. The Forum will also be repeating some of the readings from our...
Highgate Hill crash spot
The early hours of this morning saw yet another car crashing into the Highgate Hill traffic lights. When will the authorities do something to make this road - and other Highgate accident hot spots - safer? This is the scene that greeted us this morning: I say "yet...
Heavy lorries damaging The Bank
Structural engineers have for some time been recommending that there needs to be weight restrictions on The Bank on Highgate Hill and Haringey Council have agreed they should be imposed. Yet this has still not happened and these two trucks have been spotted in recent...
Meeting to hear results of air quality tests
On Tuesday 26 April there is a public meeting 6.30–9pm at St Stephens Rosslyn Hill (details here). Come and hear the facts from experts and discuss what could and should be done to make London’s air safe to breathe. The meeting should be lively and aims to both inform...
Update on Highgate’s air quality test
The air quality sensors have been collected and sent to the lab. Read Marjolaine Briscoe's account of the project.
Forum response to CMP for proposed Parkland Walk basement
Construction Management Plan in HGY/2016/0666 Parkland Walk is an important local resource, well-used and well-loved by thousands of local residents. The covenants on the land are clear, and any purchaser of 3 Francis Place would be well aware of them. For the owner...
New Winchester Tavern planning application
The developer has submitted a new planning application under HGY/2016/0789 As with the previous application, which was rejected, this will only serve to reduce the pub trading space to an inoperable level, dooming it to fail and ensuring the developers get to convert...
Haringey’s response on CIL spending
Subject: Community Infrastructure Levy - Panel Report On behalf of Cllr Eugene Akwasi-Ayisi Dear David and Rachel Apologies for the delay in responding, but thank you for your emails regarding the Community Infrastructure Levy report of the Housing & Regeneration...
Road safety and speeds in Highgate
Road safety is important. There is a need to make street life safer and feel safer. If our streets are more appealing places to be more people will use them as pedestrians and cyclists, encouraging a greener and healthier lifestyle. Making progress on this is a...
Forum response to 271 consultation
The Forum offers its strong support for moving the 271 terminus to North Road as set out in the proposed a scheme - https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/buses/route-271 Our aims have been to: • Improve bus interconnections, and facilitate east-west journeys • Improve the...
Putting bins away
Do your bins get put back in the garden after the refuse collector has emptied them? Not everywhere they don't! According to the Haringey website the expected practice is clear enough. "The evening before collection day, please: Put your wheelie bin as close to the...
271 terminus chaos – in pictures
Another forum blog explains the logic behind the TfL proposal to change the 271 terminus location, which is being consulted on until 13 March. Here we just wanted to share some images that demonstrate the problems that can arise near the turnaround and cause...
Changes to the 271 route in Highgate Village
Representatives of the Highgate Forum and Highgate Society have been in discussions with TfL and the boroughs for some years over possible changes to the 271 bus route. TfL has now launched a consultation on a proposal. We strongly support this. Over the many years...
HNF Community Energy Group: ideas and progress
The Community Energy Group was active from July 2015 and full of ideas to deliver community energy schemes. These schemes have been popular around the UK and essentially offer local people the chance to invest in solar (or wind or other types). They offered a modest...
Save the Winchester pub
The Miltons Residents Association has launched a petition to save the historic and beautiful Winchester pub in the Archway Road from damaging further development. The Winchester Tavern was built in 1881 as part of a very distinctive parade of shops with housing above...
Pond Square toilets threatened
Camden council are proposing to close the toilets in Pond Square. Once closed it is highly unlikely they will ever be reopened as toilets but sold off to the private sector for conversion to another purpose. These well known and popular toilets receive approximately...
Improving the W5 “hail and ride”
Living just off Archway Road, and with a bus-obsessed three-year-old, I see a lot of the 43, 134 and 263. But there’s another bus that runs close to me – the W5. How close? Hard to say. It’s passed me, but I’ve rarely managed to catch it. The W5 is one of numerous...
Highgate’s air
You can be in Highgate or on the Heath looking down at the City and west end and see what looks like a layer of smog. There are widely-reported health warnings, with a major one in April this year, and a quick online search for London smog images reveals eerily...
Highgate’s company-owned homes
Do your neighbours own their home or are they living in something belonging to an off-shore company based in a tax haven? Now there's a map that answers the question! Readers of Private Eye will know that it has recently been revealing the extent of ownership of...
Funding for community-led housing project
We have learnt that Locality – the organisation appointed by DCLG to support Neighbourhood Planning groups – has got funding available to community groups interested in progressing a community-led housing project. Have you got an idea? Up to £50,000 is on offer via...
Phone box advertising
Camden has received an application to turn one of Highgate's iconic phone boxes into an advertising stand containing three LCD screens with flashing ads. The Forum has objected. Please read about the background, and the response to the council here: Planning...
Community Action Groups
Community Action Plan working groups Please contact maggy.meadeking@btinternet.com if you'd like to get involved with any of these groups, or if you have suggestions and would like to lead on others. Community participation/volunteering Local business...
Hampstead Heath Dam News
Works on the Hampstead Heath Ponds have started in earnest. Although most amenity groups were against the works, the City of London pressed ahead with their plans, won a judicial review and got planning permission from Camden. So we must now grin and bear it for the...
London family wanted for Back in Time TV show
We've been contacted by Wall to Wall TV which recently made the BBC Two series Back In Time For Dinner, in which a family ate their way through typical meals of the 1950s through to the 1990s. "We are looking for a family who, just like the Robshaws, will immerse...
Check out our videos on the Plan
Why did we start the Forum? Who's involved and why do we like Highgate so much? What's in the Neighbourhood Plan? Find out in our videos at http://goo.gl/62AzAi
Highgate Neighbourhood Plan launched
The Highgate Neighbourhood Plan, the result of two years of work by the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum was launched this week with an appeal to Highgate residents to ‘tell us what you think’. Read the full press release.
Highgate’s green space
It was very clear from the survey work that we have done in preparation of the draft plan that "green" was Highgate's colour - people love the open spaces, parks and trees. The sense of green is supported by the facts. The forum area is about 27% garden. This is about...
Mapping Highgate’s public toilets
Simon Briscoe on a local initiative that’s part of a global campaign So it’s World Toilet Day on Wednesday 19th November. Here’s the proof: http://worldtoilet.org/ It’s a UN-sponsored initiative to improve sanitation for the many millions who do not have clean safe...
Jacksons Lane’s local projects
An interview with Stuart Cox, Participation Manager at Jacksons Lane Stuart, Jacksons Lane offers such a broad range of events – can you give us a bit of an overview? Yes indeed, we define ourselves as ‘North London’s Creative Space’. We produce and host three key...
Solar everywhere!? Upcoming HERE COMES THE SUN! event
Jackie, you’re one of the organisers of the HERE COMES THE SUN! event on Saturday 12 April. What can we expect? Well, its full title ‘HERE COMES THE SUN! Solar on your rooftop, solar for your community, your school – and more’ helps explain that. It’s at St Michael’s...
Join us and have your say on Highgate’s future!
An interview with Maggy Meade-King, Chair of the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum Maggy, we hear you already have quite a few people on your mailing list, but probably there are still a lot of people in Highgate who don’t know the Neighbourhood Forum well enough. What is...
The Great North Road
David Porter is enthusiastic about the diversity of the Archway Road There are about twenty thousand of us living in Highgate and I think each one of us has our own version of the place: 20,000 personalised mini-Highgates. One of the most interesting things about...
Community Planning workshops
We held two lively Community Planning workshops – the first at Channing School on the 16th January 2013 and the second in the Murugan Temple on January 28th. Both halls were packed with local residents and businesses 'voting' on the ideas that have come in so far –...
Highgate needs YOU
The Forum is made up of people like you who care about making Highgate a better place to live and work. Come join us!
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