A 522-name petition to remove the Brent Street parklet was rejected. Instead all 13 parklets across eight town centres get a new licence and a charge.

A petition signed by 522 people to remove the parklet outside 134 Brent Street in Hendon has been turned down. Barnet’s Cabinet decided on 15 September that the licence can be renewed when it expires on 31 January 2027, if the business at that address, Pita Street, wants it.

The decision the petitioners did not ask for is the one that reaches the rest of the borough. Cabinet also agreed to introduce a new form of licence, with a new charge, for every remaining parklet in the borough. There are 13 Barnet parklets, spread across eight town centres, and all of them are covered.

What the new licence will require

Under the new arrangement, the business attached to each parklet will have to:

  • maintain it
  • keep it clean
  • plant it and keep the planting going
  • actually use it
  • contribute towards the annual structural survey costs needed to keep it in operation

Officers told Cabinet why. Parklets were first provided free when the programme started in 2020, to help hospitality businesses through the pandemic. An annual pavement licence came later, but the fee “did not fully reflect the costs to the council of maintaining the parklets and administering the programme”.

The report asks for a charge for the seating immediately outside the premises, plus a separate charge for use of the parklet itself, set at a level that “reflects the true costs to the council”. The money is to go towards inspection, maintenance and possible future removal.

Neither the amount nor the start date has been set. Cabinet delegated authority to chief officers, in consultation with the cabinet member for environment and climate change, to approve the new licence once the legal team has confirmed the method and timetable.

The numbers behind it
Parklets in Barnet 13, across 8 town centres
Annual inspection cost £75 per parklet, charged by the Highways direct labour organisation
Cost to remove one About £2,000 to £5,000
Budget available for removals None

The report is blunt on that last line: “There is currently no available budget to support the removal of parklets. This will create a revenue pressure.” Removing the Brent Street parklet would have been an unbudgeted cost of between £2,000 and £5,000.

Why the petition did not succeed

The petition was submitted on 2 June 2026 by Councillor Alex Prager, a ward member for Hendon. It went to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 16 July and was referred on to Cabinet. Its wording was short:

We the undersigned petition the Labour-run Barnet Council to remove the wooden planter boxes and seating on Brent Street, NW4 2DR. The parklets are a magnet for anti-social behaviour. Many local residents and shopkeepers have expressed concern about the planters. The planters must be removed as soon as possible.

Officers checked both claims and reported back on each:

  • Anti-social behaviour. The Community Safety team confirmed that as of 10 July 2026 there had been no reported incidents of anti-social behaviour related to this parklet.
  • Condition of the planters. The report says the plants “have been replenished at the business’ expense and are well looked after”.
  • Structural safety. A structural survey confirmed the parklet is structurally sound.
  • Licence compliance. The report found no breaches at the location, and said the parklet is “generally well used with tables and seats well maintained”.

That mattered legally as well as politically. The current pavement licence runs to 31 January 2027 and can only be ended early for specific reasons: risk to public health or safety, an unacceptable obstruction, or anti-social behaviour and public nuisance. None applied, so the report told Cabinet that removing it before expiry “will breach the conditions of the existing licence”.

Cabinet was given two options: refuse to renew on or after 1 February 2027 because of local opposition, or renew if the business agrees. It chose the second.

Councillor Prager presented the petition at the meeting. Councillor Alan Schneiderman, the cabinet member for environment and climate change, responded.

What happens next

  • Now: officers in Licensing, Highways and Legal work up the new form of licence and the charge.
  • Then: chief officers approve it, in consultation with the cabinet member. No further public vote is scheduled.
  • 31 January 2027: the Brent Street licence expires and can be renewed on the new terms, if the business agrees to them.

The council also committed to keeping all parklets under annual structural survey and to removing any that are no longer structurally viable.

Parklets sit in the carriageway, in what were parking bays, so removing one means reinstating the bay under whatever restriction applies to that stretch. Our parking in Barnet page covers the borough’s controlled zones and charges, and changes to bays and restrictions are tracked on our Barnet roadworks and travel page.

What it means for you

If you run one of the 13 businesses with a parklet, a bill is coming and the size of it has not been published. The obligations are firmer too: keeping the planting alive and the structure clean stops being good practice and becomes a licence condition, with a share of the survey cost attached.

If you live near one, the practical change is that the council now has a funded route to inspect and, where necessary, remove them, which it did not have before. It has said it has no budget for removals at all, and that a single removal costs between £2,000 and £5,000.

And if you signed the Hendon petition, the honest summary is that the council tested the two specific complaints in it, found neither was borne out on the record, and declined to remove the parklet on that basis, while agreeing to tighten the rules for every parklet in the borough instead.

Sources