As many of you will have seen from our recent newsletters, we have finally been granted planning permission. Which is great news! It has been a much longer and more complicated process than we would have liked, but we have reached an important milestone. We're now working with our architects, the council, the Mayor of London and others to get moving on the demolition of our current pop up cafe and to start construction of the new cafe space and workshops. The demolition will be happening in August and construction will continue up to the end of 2019 and into early 2020. We will send out a separate update shortly with details of next steps and key dates. Thank you again to all of you for your support and patience with us as we navigated our way through the planning process. The exciting phase of building is to come!

Hi everyone Just a quick update for all the wonderful supporters of our Farm Cafe and Workshops crowdfund. 1. PLANNING APPLICATION: As we mentioned in our last update, we submitted our ecologist’s report on the bat roost in the farm buildings. On the basis of this report Barnet have given us some restrictions on the tools we can use during construction to limit any impact on the bats, but nothing that should severely impact the project. We expected that now the report has been accepted that a final decision would be made as to whether we could proceed with the construction, but unfortunately the planning team have come back to us with new questions regarding waste management for the expanded cafe. This has meant we have had to revise our drawings again, and these now have to be put back out for public consultation. We're unsure as to why we are getting these requests for further details only now (we first submitted our application in November 2018). Suffice to say, it is frustrating that it is taking so long to get a decision made and we are eager to get going. We very much appreciate all of your patience and rest assured we will let you know as soon as we have another update. [Your crowdfund pledges are all still held by Spacehive and won’t be released to us until we have planning permission.] 2. EXISTING CAFE: As many of you know, while we are waiting for the planning permission decision to be made, we have reopened our existing cafe and have been serving lovely teas and coffees and cakes. We are open Wednesdays 10am-12pm (Stay & Play) and 10am-2pm every Saturday. For half-term next week, we have an extended Stay & Play session at the café from 10am-2pm on Wednesday 30th May. We are also pleased to say that we are now accepting card payments! ☺ 3. GOOD GROWTH FUND - FEASIBILITY STUDY: In other news, we are making progress with the feasibility study and business planning funded by the Mayor of London Good Growth Fund. We have commissioned a great architecture practice called RCKa and we will be working closely with their team over the next few months on our strategy for bringing all of the buildings back into use and to ensure we have a bright and sustainable future ahead of us. As part of this work we will be engaging local people, Barnet council and the Brent Cross South regeneration team at Argent Related. This is an incredibly important piece of work and will enable us to articulate a compelling and sustainable future vision for the farm, backed up with research, drawings and a strong business case. 4. THE FARM GARDEN is going from strength to strength and as many of you will have seen, we have expanded beyond the garden gate into the section of the park just outside. This used to be just scrub, grass and a lot of rubbish, but thanks to the help of a wonderful team of volunteers and regular visits from GoodGym we've made great progress and the area is really starting to take shape. You may have noticed that we have even started experimenting growing strawberries, mange tout, tomatoes, corn and potatoes in over 50 hay bales! Do come by and visit us, get involved or just enjoy the space. The garden is open Mondays 10am-11am, Wednesdays 7-8pm (for volunteer induction), Friday 9am-11am and then 3-5pm, and Saturdays 10am-2pm. That's all for now. We will update you on the planning decision as soon as we hear. Hopefully it won't be long now. Do come by and visit our cafe and garden and let us know if you would like to get involved. We're always looking to expand our team. You can email us on info@clitterhouse.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (links below). Thanks, The Farm Team www.clitterhouse.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/clitterhouse Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/chfarm Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clitterhousefarm

Hi everyone!   Firstly, many apologies for the radio silence. The farm team have been busy and we have a few updates for you.   1.) Planning permission and the bats! We have now completed our bat survey and the ecology report has come back with some recommendations. The good news is the café should not impact any bats that are roosting in the farm buildings so this should not be a stumbling block for planning.  We’ve submitted the report to the Barnet planning department and we’re waiting to hear back about next steps. Hopefully, we will get permission in the next few weeks. 2.) Pledges: Most of you will have received email notifications from Spacehive over the last few weeks saying that they have deducted your pledges through PayPal and GoCardless. We know there are a few outstanding payments but most of the money should have been collected by now. The Farm Project has not received any of the monies yet as GoCardless and Paypal hold onto the pledges until planning permission has been granted. Once permission has been received the money will be transferred across to us and we can start to make headway in terms of commissioning a construction partner and buying materials. We will of course keep you posted on how things progress. 3.) Good Growth Fund. You may be interested to know, that we are in the process of commissioning a consultant to develop a feasibility study and strategic delivery plan for the wider farm site. This is being funded by the Mayor of London Good Growth Funding. This is a very important piece of work and will help build the case for our plans for the rest of the farm buildings. We will send you updates on this as and when we have them. 4.)Farm Garden: The garden is going from strength to strength and any of you have visited recently will have seen that we have made great progress with a new seating area and pergola and the spring bulbs are starting to bloom (see attached photo). We’re open Mondays 10-11am, Fridays, 9-11am (we have school groups between 11am-2.30pm) and Saturdays 10am-1pm. But please check social media (links below) for latest updates. We are always looking for new people who want to join the garden team so please email patrick@clitterhouse.com if you’d like to find out how you can get involved. 5.)Existing café: As we are still waiting for planning permission to come through before we can begin construction on our expanded café, we have decided to temporarily reopen the existing café every Saturday from April onwards. If you are keen to support the running of café, either by becoming a trained barista, by donating home-baked goodies or have another skill to offer then please email Paulette on paulette@clitterhouse.com    That’s all for now. We’ll endeavour to send out more regular updates and hopefully our next message will be telling you that planning permission has been approved. Thanks again for all your support and generosity. The Farm Team. www.clitterhouse.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/clitterhouse Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/chfarm