Barnet council has sent a formal notice to the Mayor of its decision to refuse Arada-Regal’s GNLP planning application. The Mayor will decide on the next steps by the end of January 2026.
The Strategic Planning Committee voted to refuse the application to redevelop GNLP at its meeting on 4 December 2025. The council must send this decision formally to the Greater London Authority (GLA) for its further assessment. The decision is communicated to the GLA in minutes of the meeting. This is known as a “Stage 2 referral” and applies only to large schemes of “potentially strategic importance”. The GLA’s decisions on the application are taken by the Mayor alone, and he is not accountable to anyone for this. The Mayor can choose to confirm the council’s refusal or to take over the application and determine it himself. Following further review, he could nullify the council’s decision and approve the application.
The Draft Minutes of the meeting were put on the council’s website on 5 January 2026, and we understand these have now been sent to the GLA. The Mayor must issue his ruling on the Stage 2 referral within two weeks of receiving the validated Minutes. We thus expect a decision from the Mayor before the end of January.
It’s very important at this stage to post comments (objections!) on the GLA’s planning website:
https://glaplanningapps.commonplace.is/en-GB/planningapps/25-0213-FUL
It’s also important to sign our petition and to encourage others to do so:
https://www.change.org/p/stop-regal-arada-s-plans-for-the-great-north-leisure-park-finchley-lido
For ideas on comments see our page on the developments:
The draft minutes
The minutes can be accessed on the link below (“Printed draft minutes”) :
https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=703&MId=11887&Ver=4
The key text is as follows:
“That the application be refused for the following reasons, subject to referral to Mayor of London:
1. The proposed development, by reason of its high density and excessive height, scale, massing, and bulk, would represent an overdevelopment of the site. Given the site’s low Public Transport Accessibility Level (PTAL), the scale and density of the scheme would be inappropriate within its context and would cause harm to the character, appearance, and amenities of the site, proposed environment and surroundings. The proposal would therefore be contrary to London Plan policies D2, D3, D4 and D9; and Barnet Local Plan (2025) policies GSS01, GSS11, GSS12, CDH01 and CDH04.
2. The application does not include a formal undertaking to secure the planning obligations which are necessary for the development to be found acceptable. The application is therefore contrary to Policy DF1 of the London Plan 2021 and Chapter 12 of the Barnet Local Plan (2025) and the Barnet Planning Obligations SPD (adopted February 2025).”