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As part of the innovative approach to street cleaning, seven bright orange glutton machines will be located in Barnet’s town centres, with an additional machine targeting hotspot areas across Barnet.   The machines which are completely electric-powered, are able to vacuum up all types of waste and will be operating in town centres from 11am-7pm daily.  

Proposals which will maintain 14 library sites in Barnet have been given the go ahead by full council. At a meeting of full council on Monday 4 April members voted to approve the proposals which follow public consultation. The changes to the library service will see: • 14 library sites retained, as well as the home, mobile and digital library services • Increased opening hours at 10 sites through the use of new technology to enable a library to open unstaffed, as being trialled at Edgware Library

It follows the publication of new government figures which show that the UK has resettled over 5,500 Syrian refugees under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement (VPR) scheme putting it on track to meet its commitment of resettling 20,000 by 2020. Barnet has currently resettled 37 Syrian refugees out of its commitment to resettle 50 individuals as part of the VPR scheme. Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill said: “The support of Barnet and other local authorities has been paramount in helping us resettle so many vulnerable people who have fled conflict.

As part of the annual Carers Week (12-18 June), Barnet Council has come together with thousands of organisations and individuals throughout the UK to highlight the challenges carers face and recognise the valuable contribution they make to families and communities.

This year, almost 95 per cent of Barnet residents who applied on time received an offer of a place at one of their top three choices of schools, whilst almost 85 per cent were offered a place at their first choice. These figures are very similar to those of the previous year with the same percentage of residents receiving a place at one of their top three school choices and the same percentage being offered their first choice.

NHS health checks are free health MOTs for patients aged 40-74 without any prior health conditions already known to their practitioner, although if a patient has any concerns about their health, they should always contact their GP.

The visit, which took place in April, was the third to take place since Ofsted judged Barnet’s Children’s Services to be inadequate in July last year. During this visit, inspectors focused on reviewing the work of a number of teams in relation to vulnerable adolescents. The findings acknowledged that while challenges remain, the council is consolidating the improvements already made, with the pace of change remaining consistent and focused, and with the quality of social work practice slowly improving.

The changes are aimed at ensuring services are run in the most efficient, effective and economical way possible. Committee members agreed proposals, including the reorganisation of recycling and refuse rounds to improve efficiency. This will allow Barnet Council to plan for future population growth in the borough, as well as enabling crews to be much more responsive to localised needs and issues.

The street scene services currently provides waste and recycling collection, street cleaning, and litter bin emptying as well as looking after nearly 200 parks and open spaces. As with all council services, street scene services needs to make significant savings to help reduce the £61.5 million deficit gap between 2016 and 2020. Over the last 18 months a wide range of options have been considered for the way the service can be provided in the future.

Barnet has had the second highest number of businesses in outer London register to boost their broadband speed using a government scheme. The nationally funded Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme gave small and medium sized businesses the opportunity to apply for vouchers worth up to £3,000 each to help them cover the set up costs of high speed business internet connections. National figures show that participating businesses reported, on average, a £1,300 per year increase in profits.