After a planning application for Victoria Quarter was turned down by Barnet Council last year, Fairview Homes and One Housing have submitted a second set of plans.
As part of the campaign to protect New Barnet from overdevelopment, Theresa Villiers MP and Conservative East Barnet ward councillors, Felix Byers and Nicole Richer, want as many people as possible to send in their views. So they have issued the following statement encouraging residents to take part in the planning consultation process:
Protect New Barnet: Update from Theresa Villiers MP, Cllrs Felix Byers & Nicole Richer - Why we are opposing the scheme...
One Housing and Fairview New Homes want to build 544 units in blocks of flats of up to eight storeys on the old gas works site in New Barnet.
We agree the site should be used for new homes, but we need family homes that are sensitive to our low-rise suburban environment.
One Housing and Fairview should stick to the plans agreed in 2017 for 371 properties – a compromise carefully negotiated with the local community. Now they want to nearly double the size of the development, ripping up that careful compromise – despite Barnet Council rejecting their first attempt to do this last year.
The number of car parking spaces per home is also to be reduced, compared to the old plans, leaving nearly half of the new households to look for parking spaces in nearby roads already packed with cars.
Please make sure you have your say, so we can protect our local environment and save New Barnet! We need your help to stop this massive overdevelopment in New Barnet, send in your objections in as soon as possible!
How to make your voice heard:
If you oppose the plans for high rise blocks of flats at Victoria Quarter, please send your views to Barnet Council’s planning committee.
There are three ways you can do that:
- By filling in the forms online at https://publicaccess.barnet.gov.uk/online-applications/. When you get to this page, enter the planning reference number 21/3676/FUL in the search box. This takes you to the Victoria Quarter application, which includes a comments tab.
- By emailing [email protected]. Please put the reference 21/3676/FUL in the subject field and include your name and postal address in the text of the email.
- By writing to Planning and Building Control, 2 Bristol Avenue, Colindale, NW9 4EW including the reference 21/3676/FUL as well as your name and postal address in your letter.
You may wish to refer to the following points on some of the strongest reasons in planning law why the development should be rejected:
- Height, bulk, massing and density are inconsistent with the predominantly open, low-rise, character of New Barnet. Seven of the blocks are 7 storey's including the ones facing the park - having a visually intrusive impact over Victoria Recreation Ground and nearby homes, and damaging the locally protected view from Hadley Green.
- Inadequate parking provision will lead to overspill parking in nearby residential streets, traffic congestion on the junction of East Barnet Road, Victoria Road and around New Barnet, and the massive increase in population will lead to added pressure on local public services.
- The proposed development would breach the Barnet Local Plan, in particular Barnet Core Strategy CS5 - which forbids development of tall buildings anywhere besides specific pre-identified suitable locations.
Please send your objections to Barnet Council TODAY!
