Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers attended the Barnet Council planning committee last night at Hendon Town Hall to speak against the latest planning application for the former gasworks site at Victoria Quarter in New Barnet.
The Barnet MP has been involved with the debate on the future of the site for nearly fifteen years.
Together highly effective residents’ groups, Save New Barnet and the New Barnet Community Association, she was successfully able to make the case for new homes on the land, rather than the Asda store which was initially proposed. Planning permission for flats and houses was eventually granted in 2015, and updated in 2017.
But the owner of Victoria Quarter, Fairview, came back asking to build a bigger, higher, denser scheme made up solely of blocks of flats. A 2021 version of that plan was rejected by the council and a planning inspector. Yet another amended scheme was considered by the council late last night.
Theresa addressed the meeting saying “It’s now almost nine years since planning permission was granted for new homes at Victoria Quarter. There could have been hundreds of people living there by now if those consented plans had been built.
We all want new homes on this land. I’ve argued for that since the early days of this 15 year long debate. But this application amounts to overdevelopment. It sacrifices design standards in order to increase density, which means poor quality homes.
The increase in height compared to the consented scheme, the removal of the terraced housing, the reliance on a single uniform, utilitarian, visually monotonous building style: all this means that the scheme fails to respond to the existing character of the neighbourhood, as required by London Plan rules.
The six blocks of six storeys will be far higher than most nearby buildings. They will loom over Victoria Recreation Ground. The height, bulk, scale, massing and design of this proposed development means that it is discordant with surrounding low rise suburban streets, just 500 metres from the green belt, and overlooking precious Metropolitan open land.
The 2015/17 consented scheme was viewed as a reasonable compromise which optimised density but in a way which respected the outer suburban nature of the location. That remains the better option and I would urge the committee to reject this planning application.”
Because the committee did not get to the Victoria Quarter item on their agenda until nearly 10pm, they deferred their decision to a future meeting to give themselves further time to discuss it.
Digital imprint; Promoted by Theresa Villiers MP of 163 High Street, Barnet, EN5 2AA
