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Keith Wilshir, 57, of Suncote Avenue, Dunstable; Catherine Jones, 44 of Athenaeum Road, Whetstone; Ilham Quronfoleh, 24, of Gibbon Road, Acton; Anastasia Kyriacou, 44, of Fore Street, Edmonton; and Raho Xaaji, 45, of Airco Close, West Hendon, were all sentenced after pleading guilty to blue badge misuse charges at Willesden Magistrates’ Court on 26 July.

Since October last year two schools in the borough have taken part in a pilot of the Mayor of Barnet’s ‘Golden Kilometre Challenge’. The challenge is aimed at getting primary school children running or walking at least one kilometre every school day in addition to the school’s normal curriculum. The scheme is similar to the ‘Daily Mile’ project run by a school in Stirling which is acknowledged to have had a marked improvement on children’s health, fitness, and concentration and behaviour in the classroom.

This year almost 95 per cent of children who applied on time for a place at a Barnet primary school received one of their top three choices, and almost 85 per cent received an offer at their first choice of school. The figures are up on last year when around 92 per cent of children received one of their top three choices and 79 per cent received an offer at their first choice of school. To help ensure there are enough places, schools including Tudor, Underhill and Holly Park have created extra classes to help cope with demand.

Residents are being invited to join thousands of other users of My Account, Barnet Council’s secure website service, and be in with a chance of winning a brand new iPad. Since My Account was launched in March, 15,100 residents have signed up, allowing them to manage their housing benefit and council tax accounts as well as access a wide range of other services including bin collections, parking permits, and road repairs all from one place. 

More people live in Barnet than any other London borough and as the population continues to grow the contract will provide a range of new buildings including schools, leisure centres and community centres to meet the growing demand. The schemes already confirmed include the building of two new leisure centres at Copthall and New Barnet, the Tarling Road Community Centre in East Finchley as well as school expansion projects.

Every item in The Loop has been lovingly refurbished or repaired by local people trained by experts from the Repurpose project, a community initiative led by Groundwork London working in partnership with Genesis Housing Association. Since last autumn, residents on the estate have benefitted from a free doorstep collection service for unwanted furniture and electrical items, offered by The Loop.

The free exhibition, which tells the story of the borough’s deep-rooted connection with the RAF, will be open to people from Monday to Friday, between 8am and 9pm. The RAF has a long and distinguished history in Barnet, dating back to the early days of aircraft manufacturing, to the significant role played by RAF Hendon Aerodrome during World War II, where the aerodrome acted as an important centre of aviation.

The Mind of My Own (MOMO) app can be downloaded by young people currently in care, or leaving care, to help them easily communicate with social care staff and overcome some of the difficulties they may have talking about their lives, concerns and worries. The app can be used by young people to express their views ahead of their review meetings, say where they feel most comfortable meeting or to give staff their general thoughts or request information at any time.

Water technicians are working to restore service to the EN4 area following outages caused by a faulty valve at Arkley reservoir. For updates, visit the Affinity Water website at www.affinitywater.co.uk or call 0345 357 2407. UPDATE - 2000, 21 February Affinity Water report that the majority of customers should now have water, however this may be at lower pressure than normal, especially at peak demand periods.

This is the borough’s most successful year, with 98 schools being awarded 35 Bronze, 22 Silver and 41 Gold awards. The awards recognise Barnet’s schools’ commitment to promoting safer and more sustainable travel to and from school by encouraging walking, cycling and the use of public transport, rather than cars.