Agudas home help in Barnet

New subsidised housing for north-west London’s Orthodox community could be available within two years.

The Agudas Israel Housing Association, which administers assisted housing schemes in Hackney and Haringey, wants to develop 13 units, including maisonettes and flats, in Barnet.

They are part of a planning application from Metro Construction, which is also seeking Barnet Council approval to develop the former Carmelite monastery in Bridge Lane, Golders Green, into 29 apartments and five detached houses.

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Barnet skips its Pesach tradition

Barnet Council is scrapping its Pesach skips for Jewish residents and will instead provide special refuse collection services.

The special collections will be in designated streets in Golders Green, Hendon and Edgware over the period of April 6-8.

Residents in other streets can arrange for additional collections between March 30 and April 7. The service is free.

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Anxiety over £950 nursery top-up fees

A local council is looking into concerns raised by parents over the fees being charged by a Jewish nursery.

Barnet Council confirmed it had been contacted by two sets of parents about Rosh Pinah Nursery in Edgware, which charges £950 a term and requires a £500 deposit within two weeks of offering a place.

Pippa Singer, whose son James has been offered a place at the nursery in September, wrote to its chairman of governors on Monday: “We are very concerned, both by the level of fees being charged, and the timescale that payment is due.”

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Housing association fears cut in Barnet funding

The Barnet-based Jewish Community Housing Association fears the loss of essential services through local authority funding cutbacks.

JCHA currently receives £71,752 from Barnet Council’s Supporting People programme to pay for wardens and an emergency calls system for seven schemes and over 200 tenants, among them people with learning or physical disabilities.

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ATM scam warning

Barnet Jews have been warned to be on their guard when using ATM machines in Hendon and Golders Green after a spate of card fraud incidents over the weekend.

Fraudsters fitted devices to a number of cash machines to trap cards and record PIN numbers which were then used to withdraw large amounts of cash.

Police have contacted synagogue groups as part of an awareness drive to urge residents to exercise particular care and, where possible, to use familiar cash machines so that any attached devices are more visibly obvious.

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Barnet's Mayor opens room at Jewish Association for Mentally Ill

Barnet Mayor Councillor John Marshall opened the newly refurbished arts and crafts room at the Jewish Association for the Mentally Ill last Thursday afternoon. The mayor chatted to members of the Jami day centre, some of whom were making the final preparations for upcoming self-catering holidays. The refurbishment was funded by the Rose Foundation, which also financed the construction of a sheltered seating area in the garden.

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‘Serious concerns’ over school proposal

A contentious planning application for the redevelopment of the Edgware Jewish Primary School site in Hale Lane was this week withdrawn at the request of Barnet Council.

In a statement to the JC on Wednesday, the council said it had "raised some serious concerns around the proposal in its current state. We are very keen to continue to work with the applicant to find a satisfactory outcome."

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Five kilometre walk to support mikveh project

Thirty supporters of the mikveh project at Cockfosters and North Southgate Synagogue raised over £1,200 from a five-kilometre walk around part of the London Loop. The fittest participants ran the course. Some of the youngest covered it on bikes and scooters. The event was backed by neighbouring communities whose women will also benefit from the mikveh - the Barnet, Southgate, Hadley Wood and Potters Bar congregations and Southgate Lubavitch.

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Sixty walk sixty to mark Israel's birthday.

Sixty walkers from the Barnet Israel Group strolled a combined 60 kilometres to mark Israel's 60th birthday. The walk took place around Reading and the local Hebrew congregation hosted a post-event reception. Participants were aged from three to 73 and the £15,000 raised will benefit a variety of Israeli charities.

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A bomb? No, a load of rubbish

Barnet police carried out a controlled explosion near the Community Security Trust’s head offices in Hendon, North-West London, this week when a CST employee reported seeing a suspect package while travelling to work.

The suspicious-looking suitcase had been left on Harmony Way, off Brent Street, on Tuesday morning. Police were called to the scene, where a cordon was put in place around Victoria Road and Brent Street and a controlled explosion was carried out.

However, the suitcase was in fact a bag of rubbish.

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