Plans to relocate the facility to North Finchley town centre ditched after voters opted to retain the current site, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

Finchley Lido Leisure Centre (credit Google)

A popular North Finchley leisure centre will remain on its current site after a clear majority of residents said they wanted it to stay.

Finchley Lido Leisure Centre, which opened in 1996 at Great North Leisure Park, was deemed not fit-for-purpose by the council last year – and one option for its future involved moving the facility to North Finchley town centre.

But Barnet Council has now ruled out a move after only 30% of those who responded to a consultation backed the plan, with 44% calling for the centre to stay put.

Run by Better on behalf of the council, the leisure centre features three pools, a gym, fitness studios and a sauna. But repair works have recently led to closures – including in 2019 when structural defects were found in the roof – and the council says the facility is near the end of its life.

Developer Regal London recently bought Great North Leisure Park’s lease with a view to building housing and other facilities on the site, which has been earmarked for development in the borough’s Local Plan. Previous owner Landsec claimed the site could provide around 800 homes.

On Thursday, the council’s policy and resources committee approved a development agreement with Regal designed to provide a new leisure facility “at no direct cost to the council”. It will also ensure the existing centre remains open until a new facility has been built.

Although councillors from the Labour and Conservative groups broadly welcomed the proposals for the leisure centre, they also expressed concerns over the possible loss of facilities on the wider site, such as car parking, the cinema and bowling alley.

Speaking during the meeting, Conservative group leader Dan Thomas said residents would be questioning whether the cost of providing the new leisure centre would be to allow tower blocks to be built on the site.

He said it was “not very helpful” that the report on the leisure centre had come “in isolation”, adding that it could have been an opportunity to talk about the wider site and North Finchley.

Labour’s Arjun Mittra, who represents East Finchley, said he thought a wider piece of work could be done “to look at the site as a whole”, adding that he would support lobbying to keep the cinema and bowling alley.

He also called for future consultations to include residents living south of the North Circular Road rather than focusing solely on North Finchley.

Council leader Barry Rawlings said the current proposals were an “opening document” that needed to be agreed with the developer to allow further negotiations to take place. He also pointed out that any development would be subject to a consultation as part of the planning process.

Council officers gave assurances that there would be further rounds of engagement to ask residents what facilities should be provided at the new centre.

Labour councillors voted in favour of the report’s proposals, with the exception of Nigel Young who felt it appropriate to abstain as he chairs the planning committee. Conservative members also abstained.

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