The redevelopment of Great North Leisure Park was first revealed last year and includes 1,500 homes, reports Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

Plans for Great North Leisure Park in Finchley (credit JTP Architects)

Plans for more than 1,500 new homes in Finchley have secured “support in principle” from City Hall and will soon be considered for approval by Barnet Council’s planning committee.

The proposed development at Great North Leisure Park would comprise 20 buildings, the tallest of which would reach 25 storeys. It would also incorporate a new leisure centre.

The existing leisure park, located just off North Circular Road, includes a Vue cinema, bowling alley and restaurants with large amounts of car parking, as well as the council-owned Finchley Lido Leisure Centre – of all of which would be demolished to make way for the new development.

A planning committee meeting to debate and vote on the plans is expected to be held before the end of April.

The plans submitted by the developer, Regal, state that a total of 1,502 new homes would be created, along with the “reprovision” of a new leisure centre and a replacement sports pavilion. At the ground floor level, some 2,590 square metres of retail space would be provided.

However, only 23% of the homes – in terms of total habitable rooms – would be classed as ‘affordable’, with 195 properties available at a social rent and 130 offered for shared ownership. The remaining 1,177 homes are proposed to be sold off at market rates.

Ordinarily for major developments in London, mayor Sir Sadiq Khan requires at least 35% of properties, by habitable room, to be classed as affordable – or, if being proposed on public land, at least 50%. As Great North Leisure Park includes both private and public land, City Hall said a threshold of about 40% had been agreed with the developer.

But a viability assessment commissioned by Regal and carried out by the consultancy DS2 concluded that the scheme’s construction costs would run to more than a half-a-billion pounds, with the new leisure centre’s construction costing almost £46m alone.

The assessment’s modelling found that “even with zero affordable housing, the residual profit return, whilst positive, does not reach a viable level”, but said that a “commercial decision” had nonetheless been taken by Regal “to provide 23% affordable housing”.

In a report on the project, Khan’s office said that this viability assessment is being “robustly interrogated” by City Hall staff, who will test its accuracy and see whether more affordable housing can be included.

The mayor’s report said that the development is “supported in principle” overall, but does not yet “fully comply” with the London Plan – a document outlining how the capital should develop over the coming years.

“Further information” is needed, the report said, on the scheme’s environmental impact and sustainable drainage proposals. In comments on the project’s transport requirements, it added that a “financial contribution towards upgrades in bus capacity would also need to be secured” by the council via a legal agreement.

Among those objecting to the plans are the London, Essex and Hertfordshire Amphibian and Reptile Trust. In a letter to the council, the trust has warned: “The scale and proximity of the proposed development would be extremely likely to impact negatively on the presence of a high status population of the internationally protected great crested newt Triturus cristatus on the adjacent Glebelands Local Nature Reserve.”

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