Last week Sadiq Khan’s deputy mayor for planning decided to approve two large housing schemes against the wishes of Barnet councillors, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter
There has been local cross-party condemnation of City Hall this week after two Barnet Council decisions to refuse plans for more than 1,750 homes were overturned.
Last Wednesday (27th), City Hall’s deputy mayor for planning Jules Pipe overturned the local authority’s decision to refuse planning permission for a 1,485-home development on Great North Leisure Park in Finchley, as well as a 283-home scheme near High Barnet Station.
The council’s strategic planning committee voted against both the Great North Leisure Park and High Barnet proposals in December last year. The two schemes each also received hundreds of objections from residents.
Speaking today (Tuesday 2nd), the leader of the Conservative opposition at the council, Peter Zinkin, said: “We opposed the developments, however [the call-in decisions were] entirely predictable as City Hall value their policies instead of the wishes and representations of the residents they’re supposed to represent.”
Cllr Zinkin’s comments follow those made last week by Ross Houston, deputy leader and cabinet member for homes and regeneration at the Labour-led local authority.
Cllr Houston said the council had rejected the applications for good reason, citing concerns about their scale, height and density.
In addition, he argued the Great North Leisure Park development would have poor public transport accessibility as well as an incomplete Section 106 agreement needed to make the plans viable for the council.
Cllr Houston said the council was “extremely disappointed” that the concerns of Barnet councillors had been “overlooked”.
He added: “We recognise London’s housing crisis and have met our targets, so it is fundamentally unfair that we are not being trusted to make our own decisions when other boroughs have fallen short of their housing targets.”
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) Cllr Zinkin said, “to add insult to injury”, he had received confirmation that a separate – and even more controversial – approved scheme to redevelop Edgware town centre and build over 3,800 homes would not be reviewed by the secretary of state.
The Edgware plans, which involve Places for London, the planning arm for Transport for London (TfL), were given outline planning permission by Barnet Council last year, despite some campaigners warning they could leave the public “exposed to an unresolved fire safety risk”.
Speaking in a slightly less supportive tone towards the council administration, Tory group leader Cllr Zinkin concluded: “Labour government, Labour mayor, Labour council – what do you expect?”
The Great North Leisure Park scheme, developed by Arada London, will see the leisure park and lido replaced with residential buildings up to 25 storeys high, as well as a new leisure centre.
The High Barnet proposals, put forward by Barratt Homes and Places for London, involve the construction of five residential buildings, between five and eleven storeys in height, as well as a commercial space and car park on the site.
The decisions to go against the council’s wishes at these sites followed public hearings at City Hall.
Deputy mayor Jules Pipe made both decisions under delegated authority from Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan. The London mayor is consulted on all planning applications of ‘potential strategic importance’ to the capital.
Under these rules, Khan can have final say over developments if they are for 150 or more homes, are on Green Belt or Metropolitan Open Land, or are over 30 metres in height. The last stipulation applies to every borough except the City of London.
Speaking last Wednesday, Pipe said he recognised the “numerous concerns” regarding the location, density and proposed building height of the Great North Leisure Centre scheme.
Nevertheless, the deputy mayor praised the developer, saying it was necessary to support the scheme to prevent the need for development in other locations, including on the Green Belt. He also commended the 25% affordable housing allocation.
JTP, the architects behind both the High Barnet and Great North Leisure Park schemes, welcomed the deputy mayor’s decisions, saying the developments would help “at a time when London continues to fall well short of its housing targets”.
The Great North Leisure Park development, they said, would “transform a fragmented, car-dominated brownfield site into a vibrant, landscape-led neighbourhood of 1,485 homes, 25% of which will be affordable, anchored by a new Leisure Centre and Lido for Barnet”.
Arada London says the existing leisure park and lido in Finchley will remain open until the new centre, with swimming facilities, is open. Work is now expected to begin on the scheme in 2027.
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