The council leader was responding to the opposition leader’s outrage on behalf of objectors to the controversial partnership between Transport for London and developers Ballymore reports David Floyd

Hendon Town Hall with (inset left) council leader Barry Rawlings and (inset right) opposition group leader Peter Zinkin

Council leader Barry Rawlings was involved in an angry row with his Conservative counterpart on Tuesday as the two leaders clashed over a major development in Edgware.

In a testy exchange during last week’s council cabinet meeting – at the point where non cabinet members are invited to quiz the cabinet – Cllr Rawlings showed his displeasure after opposition leader Peter Zinkin criticised the council for failing to take questions from campaigners opposed to the TfL Ballymore development.

Cllr Zinkin told the meeting he was “appalled” that the Edgware residents had been prevented from raising questions directly at the meeting because officers said “they had not applied in time”.

He hit out at the “completely unfeeling, unlistening nature of this process” which led to the campaigners being unable to speak before labeling the council’s approach “an absolute disgrace”.

However, the usually avuncular Cllr Rawlings was clearly unimpressed by the outburst and drew attention to his opponents’ role in the Edgware development responding: “I would point out that, obviously you know I’ve been a councillor for a while and this Edgware plan was originally your plan, the Conservatives.”

Referencing amendments to the TfL Ballymore plans following the election of his Labour administration he noted: “We’ve lowered it, you wanted higher buildings. And the fact that this happened was allowed by your administration in April 2022 before we were elected.”

“It’s nice to have a bit of acting”

Concluding his remarks, the frustrated leader added: “So while I like the fake rage and it’s nice to have a bit of acting: let’s be honest, this has resulted from your decisions as well as ours.”

The disagreement was triggered after the cabinet was asked to approve a plan for £41.5million that would otherwise be due to the council in Community Infrastructure Levy as part of the TfL Ballymore development being allocated for use by the developers on local infrastructure in the Edgware area.

In a statement last week, campaign group Save Our Edgware said the plan: “amounts to a developer clawback—using public money to underwrite a private scheme the developer itself has described as “unviable” without public help”

However, speaking at the meeting, cabinet member for housing Ross Houston said:

“What we’re not doing is handing over £41million of public funds to a developer, for example, which is one of the comments that I’ve seen on social media.”

Plans for the Tfl Ballymore development are expected to be discussed by the council’s strategic planning committee at a meeting on Wednesday, 23rd July.

UPDATE: This story was updated on Sunday 29th June at 13.35 pm. Two changes were made: a correction the day of the cabinet meeting from Thursday (19th) to Tuesday (17th), and an update on the date of the upcoming discussion of the development by the council’s strategic planning committee.

Barnet Post had understood from the cabinet discussions that the development would be discussed in July and had therefore believed that this meant the listed committee meeting on 14th July, however an additional meeting was subsequent added to the diary on July 23rd and we now understand that the Edgware development will be discussed at that meeting, with the application by Barnet Football Club being discussed on July 14th.

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