East Barnet Councillors are celebrating with local residents after the derelict Jester pub was finally demolished last week.
Labour’s Cllr Simon Radford said: “When I was elected in 2022, the Jester had loomed like a haunted house and local residents had been resigned to its presence for several years already.
“Residents were distressed that this dangerous and unsightly wreck in their neighbourhood seemed forgotten about.
“Getting it removed was the subject of my first email to officers, and I determined to make it a personal priority, insisting on regular updates so the neighbourhood knew what was going on.”
The pub originally burnt down in 2018 and for years little nothing appeared to happen. Local activists and East Barnet’s Labour councillors – Cllrs Phil Cohen and Edith David along with Councillor Radford – supercharged a community campaign with more than hundred members joining the Facebook group.
Cllr Radford added: “We got the BBC to cover the campaign, prompting the owner to act and put in the planning application for a nursery.
“We worked to ensure that the owner was properly communicating with Barnet Council’s planning department so residents did not have to wait a moment longer than they already had for progress.
“Finally clearing this potential death trap is the result of a whole community effort and this is their win. I want to thank them for all their hard work.”
Local resident Ismael Pope said: “We’ve been calling it the haunted house for years, so clearing it away and getting a nursery instead is great. We shouldn’t have had to put up with it for so long in what is a family neighbourhood.”
Paul Levine, who also lives locally, said: “I am so grateful for the work of Cllr Radford and his colleagues for their persistence in pushing and pushing for this saga to finally end after years of seemingly no progress.”
Construction work is due to last for 18 months with the development of a new nursery completed by the spring of 2027.
