Hendon parklet on Brent Street stays after Barnet backs licence renewal

A parklet outside a Hendon restaurant will stay in place after Barnet Council agreed the licence for it can be renewed. The decision came at a cabinet member meeting on Tuesday, in response to a petition demanding the space be taken out.

The owners of the Pita Street restaurant at 134 Brent Street hold a licence that lapses at the end of January next year, and they will be free to renew it. The structure takes up roughly the length of three car parking spaces.

Petition against the Brent Street parklet

Conservative ward councillor Alex Prager brought the petition and told the meeting that residents “don’t want” it, and said the space should go once the licence runs out. Demand for parking bays has risen sharply, he said, driven in part by new housing nearby, while the parklet sits empty.

More than 500 people signed, around 95 per cent of them living close by, according to Cllr Prager, who said hundreds of emails had reached him from residents. He put the petition online roughly 12 months ago with 30 to 40 names on it, and support grew once he shared it on social media. He has never met the restaurant’s owner, he told the meeting, though he had spoken to shopkeepers nearby who fear losing trade if parking shrinks. The petition described the spot as “a magnet for antisocial behaviour”, and he cited a complaint from someone who said women felt intimidated at night by people hanging around outside.

What Barnet Council said

Sara Conway, cabinet member for community safety and for ending violence against women and girls, said nothing of the kind had been logged at this parklet, and that similar structures elsewhere in Barnet had been taken out where such behaviour was reported. Concerns should go to the police or the council, she said.

Alan Schneiderman, who leads on environment and climate change, said parklets across the borough had been handled pragmatically and that a business would be unlikely to keep paying for something it never used. Council leader Barry Rawlings said the authority and the restaurant had a signed agreement “and we have to abide by that”. Cllr Prager was unconvinced, telling the meeting that more than 550 residents object while one business wants it there.