Christmas tree at Colindale HQ
Barnet Council has announced its temporary service changes for the festive season, including Christmas week and New Year.
Bin collection days and opening hours for libraries and leisure centres are set to change, while shoppers can benefit from half-price parking.
A Barnet Council spokesperson said: “This festive season, we’ll continue to provide our frontline and essential services. Although timings and opening hours will change, our staff will remain focused on delivering for our residents. You can keep up to date with the latest service announcements by following our social media channels.”
Bin collections
Recycling and refuse collection days will change to work around the Christmas and New Year bank holidays between 23 December and 6 January. Details of revised dates can be found at www.barnet.gov.uk/christmasbincollections. Blue recycling bin and black refuse bin collections will resume on residents’ normal collection day from the week commencing 8 January.
Garden waste collections will pause for the winter period from 10 December for six weeks. Residents who have signed up to the service can check their next collection date in the new year from 13 December at www.barnet.gov.uk/bins. Subscribers will also be emailed a reminder before collections resume in the new year.
Real Christmas trees will be collected in January. If residents would like their real Christmas tree to be collected, they must ensure it has all decorations and tree lights removed, is cut in half and put at the boundary of their property by 12 January for collection over one of the two weekends that follow.
Leisure centres
All council-owned leisure centres will be closed on 21 December, 25 December, 26 December and 1 January. For the remainder of the festive season, from 22 December until 2 January, they will be operating with reduced hours in place. Full details are available at https://www.better.org.uk/leisure-centre/london/barnet/news/festive-period-opening-hours
Libraries
Libraries will be closed on 24-26 December, 31 December and 1 January. On 23 and 30 December, they will close at 5pm. Libraries will be open as usual on 27 December – apart from Childs Hill Library, which will remain closed - and from 2 January onwards.
Car parking
This festive season, parking will be half price in all Barnet pay-to-park bays and in the council’s car parks for every weekend in December up until Christmas.
For more information, residents can visit: https://www.barnet.gov.uk/parking/half-price-festive-parking
Please note that half-price parking only applies to council-operated ‘paid-for’ parking areas. It does not apply to permit bays, private car parks or leisure centre car parks.
Contact us
If you need to contact us over the festive period, our customer contact centre will be open as usual between Christmas and New Year (apart from 25 and 26 December and 1 January, which are bank holidays). The out-of-hours service will still be answered 24 hours a day for emergencies.
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