Campaign victory: Barnet Council refuses development proposal for the Great North Leisure Park

At a meeting on 4 December 2025, Barnet Council’s Strategic Planning Committee rejected the major proposal by Regal London Limited to build large blocks of flats at the Great North Leisure Park in Finchley. The Committee decided that “this high density proposal would result in over-development of the site.” The council’s refusal represents a major victory for local campaigners who opposed the badly designed scheme, which has little affordable housing and would lead to the loss of valuable entertainment venues. The Our North Finchley campaign generated widespread local opposition to the development. An online petition to reject the planning application collected 7,864 signatures. In a gathering outside Hendon Town Hall, activists presented the signatures to the council in postal bags.

Regal applied to demolish the existing entertainment facilities at the Leisure Park and replace them with 1,485 small and mostly unaffordable flats in tightly packed blocks up to 25 storeys high. The petition called this “an antisocial development because it does not deliver the social, affordable, and family housing that we require and fails to create a sustainable community.” The development would have been one of the densest in the UK, with 4,300 people living in huge buildings on an area the size of five football pitches, with few shops and poor transport connections.

Our North Finchley pointed out that the Hollywood Bowl and the Vue cinema at the Leisure Park are the only such entertainment venues in that part of London. Without them, young people and their families would have no safe space to socialise. The scheme would have provided a new leisure centre to replace the ageing Finchley Lido on the site. But the council cut down the size of the proposed facility by 50% amid confusion over its cost and design.

Local conservationists have detailed how the development would damage the Glebelands Local Nature Reserve next door. Its population of protected Great Crested Newts, which is the largest in London, could have been eradicated. The developer did not propose a credible way to prevent this. Conservationists point out that harming the newts is a criminal offence. Local MP Sarah Sackman sent a letter to the council’s Committee, saying that she opposed the scheme. In her view, the 25% of affordable housing it provided was too little, there would be too much strain on local services such as transport and the NHS, and the new leisure centre was not an adequate upgrade.

Mary Hogben, of the Finchley Society, told the Committee that the development was “bad housing design, completely out of character for the area and lacking the menities needed for decent living.” The overcrowding, together with lack of daylight and privacy, created “a real chance of damage to the physical and mental health of residents.”

Our North Finchley campaigner George Ttoouli says: “This shows the power a community can wield against London’s developers. It tells private interests they cannot cover our city in dense tower blocks people do not want or need. There is a way to get the right housing on this site at the right price and for the right people, while keeping our entertainments. The Mayor of London must listen to our council and MP and back the community to refuse this development.”

Our North Finchley wants a dialogue with the UAE-based developer Arada, which recently bought Regal London. Michael Levitsky of Our North Finchley says: “Arada claims to believe in building great places which should inspire healthier, happier, and more meaningful lives. Let’s do that here. This new entrant to London property has a choice – to get a reputation for badly designed schemes, or to set a new standard by building a development suitable for its residents, the community and nature.”

Barnet Council Application Reference: 25/0213/FUL. Great North Leisure Park is at London N12 0GL