This proposal would demolish all buildings and replace them with an extremely dense developments of very tall blocks of flats. The existing Leisure Centre (Lido) will be replaced with a new one on an adjacent site. The Vue Cinema and Hollywood Bowl will not be replaced. This is a bad scheme for many reasons:
- It is far too tall and dense. With 1,485 flats, it will be six-times the density considered acceptable for an area such as this. London developments have been becoming ever taller, more massive and denser. This represents a further extreme, moving into an absurd realm of developers’ fantasies. It is comparable with the centres of the most overcrowded cities in the world.
- Most homes will be dark and many will have views only of another block two dozen metres away. A third will be single aspect, with windows facing in one direction, which is not accepted under planning policies because there is not enough natural air flow.
- There is almost no public space for the 4,000 people who will live there. Outside space between the massive buildings is barely enough for comfortable walkways.
- Playspaces for children are scattered in small pockets all over the scheme. They often form parts of public walkways or are placed on roofs. This is not a child-friendly, or youth-friendly development. Nor is it one for people with limited mobility, who need very close and accessible areas where they can move easily, and sit to breathe fresh air.
- Public transport is inadequate for a development of this kind. There are only two bus routes serving the area, both already at capacity in peak times. It is too far from Tube stations for walking to be a practical alternative.
- There are too few amenities (shops, dining, etc.) for a site of 4,000 people. They will use North Finchley town centre, but it is a mile away. People need these close-by too.
- The existing Hollywood Bowl and Vue Cinema will close. These serve large areas of Barnet, and are the only such venues for many miles around. They are crucial for young people. The council failed to consult on this and will leave young people stranded, with nowhere to go other than the streets. The supposed replacements on Lodge Lane are useless: they are tiny, have few facilities, with no parking, and in difficult locations.
- The development is located next to Glebelands playing fields and the Glebelands Nature Reserve. But there is no plan to integrate the development into these. In fact, the development could disrupt the nature reserve and the protected crested newts that live there (London’s largest colony of this rare species).
- Only 20 percent of the flats in this huge development will be classed as “affordable”. None will be at social rents. The minimum affordable housing expected by law is 35 percent, which is what nearly all other schemes of this size offer.
- Only 18 percent of the flats will have three bedrooms or more. The council’s local plans calls for over 50 percent. This site, in a green area outside the town centre is an ideal place for real family homes with gardens. But once again a scheme fails to deliver the new homes that Barnet residents need and were promised.
- Bringing 4,000 people into an area raises the question of whether infrastructure, the health service and schools can cope. An adequate assessment of this has not been made.
- A new Leisure Centre would be built. The existing Leisure Centre barely copes with demand. The 4,000 additional people living next door will overwhelm the capacity of the new facility.
- The tall buildings violate the legally-mandated policies of the Local Plan and the London Plan. Tall buildings are only permitted in designated areas of Barnet, and GNLP is not one of them. The developers want the council and the GLA to manipulate the law artificially to give them what they want. Local authorities that do this would betray the spirit of the law. Either laws are something to be respected, or governments can bend them at their will. This is not the kind of country we expect to live in.