Four blocks of flats and 300 homes for High Barnet tube station, but all 160 car park spaces would be lost
“Where will all the cars go?” was the first question asked by many local residents attending the first exhibition of the latest plans to build blocks of flats over the car park and self-storage container yard at High Barnet tube station.
Transport for London, through its property development subsidiary Places for London, is making a joint application with Barratt Homes to build four blocks of flats to provide around 300 new homes.
This will result in the loss of all 160 car park spaces at the station – the only space remaining will be for disabled drivers with blue badges and for dropping off passengers.
No final decisions have been taken on the height of the blocks or the final design as the development team are anxious to test local opinion before holding another exhibition in the New Year and before submitting a planning application next spring or early summer.
On seeing the draft proposals on display at Chipping Barnet Library, residents seemed almost unanimous in criticising the withdrawal of all car parking spaces – a previous outline plan in 2020 had proposed the retention of 32 spaces.
The residents’ overriding fear was that the loss of the entire car park would only increase the pressure for off-street parking on streets around St Albans Road, Meadway and Underhill which are outside CPZ controls.
Patrick Clark (above) who is leading the team from Places for London told the Barnet Society that the Mayor of London’s current policy was not to replace car parking spaces in new housing developments at tube stations or nearby brownfield sites.
The mayor’s aim was to encourage active travel, by public transport, cycling or walking.
Mr Clark emphasised that the plans were at an early consultative stage. The previous 2019 application had cut the height of the proposed blocks of flats to six to seven stories, instead of 10 to 12 as originally planned.
The latest idea was to construct four blocks and if the developers were to keep to the target of providing 300 new homes – of which 40 per cent would be affordable – then they would need to be higher than six to seven stories.
He acknowledged concerns expressed locally about the stability of the ground on Barnet Hill around the tube station.
There would be extensive surveys before final decisions were taken and cost of work on foundations would have to be taken into account, as the aim was to build homes that “would last long into the future”.
Mr Clark stressed that TfL was keen to hear local views especially on how to improve the approaches to the tube station and whether the new buildings nearest the station should incorporate a cafe or corner shop.
Five years ago, after hearing of concern expressed at previous consultations, TfL had examined whether there was any possibility of providing a shuttle bus service between the tube station and High Barnet town centre.
The conclusion then was that such a service would not be viable, but TfL would re-examine options as part of the consultation process.
In his first reaction to the latest proposals, Robin Bishop, who leads for the Barnet Society on planning and the environment, said the society would not object to some housing on the car park.
“But it must be an appropriate mix. You must create a viable community – not a ghetto on a very tricky long, polluted site on unstable ground.”
Mr Bishop said High Barnet was proud of its identity and Barnet Hill was an attractive approach to an historic town.
The planting of trees by the society over the last 25 years had mitigated the “unsightly container depot” – the depot has well over 100 self-storage containers which are stacked on what was originally a station coal yard.
Mr Bishop echoed the residents’ fears over the loss of the car park.
“What do local residents and users of High Barnet station have to gain?
“Our station and its natural surroundings have some charm and environmental qualities, but access and modal interchange are dysfunctional.
“The short and long-term effects of this project will be deeply disruptive.
“In return, the least we should expect is an accessible and environmentally enhancing transport hub worthy of the 21st century.”
14 thoughts on “Four blocks of flats and 300 homes for High Barnet tube station, but all 160 car park spaces would be lost”
Comments are closed.
Why not become a member? Receive our latest newsletter hot off the press four times a year, and support our work with a membership.
If you have some local news, history or want to bring something to our attention please email us.
NEW: Barnet Society meeting on 27 Feb
These Folk.
Friday 21 February, 3-4pm, Chipping Barnet Library.
A funny, beautiful and heartwarming show performed by two of the UK’s most experienced improvisers.
Book your free ticket - https://bit.ly/4hRkmHa
The Barnet FC Walking Football Team
Is very proud to have won
The Walking Football Association
“ Club Of The Year 2024 “
Wonderful recognition of the hard work of all our players in creating our fab club
Thank you 🙏🏼
NEW: Latest plans for the High Barnet station car park site
🐝 BACK THE BEES 🐝
All seasons pass holders will now have the chance to bring a friend to the Hive to every league game this season for 50% off up until the Yeovil game on the 4th of March! COYB's
#BarnetFC🐝
There needs to be a very detailed parking and traffic plan with the proposal. This is not an inner London site, so cars may still be a necessity for many of the new flat owners. So this will add 100+ cars, conservatively, to the immediate area. Then, with no car parking spots for this terminus station (meaning people travel from beyond public transport hubs to get here), that will add another 160 cars to the immediate area. A quick scan of the local area (walkable within 10-15 minutes) shows there is no daily space for this amount of cars. Barnet Hill, Wood Street and the High Street are massively congested today, the station pick up/drop off is chaotic and dangerous at peak times…local residents and tube users need very clear sight of how all of this will be addressed with this development. And non-traffic related, a Labour government should want to pay close attention to how the developer will make money if they are also the freeholder – the council and the Mayor should strongly limit use of this system as it creates huge financial risk/burden to the leaseholders, many of whom will be in affordable flats…just saying….
The term ‘active travel’ is hugely discriminatory. The people most affected will be the elderly, the sick, and those who are not mobile but don’t reach the standard of a blue badge. Getting rid of all car parking is hugely ideological.
The name Controlled Parking Zone is a joke. We pay for the privilege to park in our own street and quite often are unable to do so. They should rename it to Uncontrolled Parking Zone because parking is completely out of control, and the CPZs have probably made things worse not better because it’s created a sense of entitlement for some residents who will now happily park over driveways if there are no other spaces left. I suspect their attitude is “why should I have to park miles away from my house if I’m paying for a permit”.
That’s interesting, thanks for the info.
So more money for nothing for the council then!? It’s starting to make sense why they’re so eager to make this a reality. More homes means more residents paying council taxes. Add some commercial space into the mix and the council can charge their extortionate business rates for those. Then extend the CPZ under the illusion that it will prevent parking overspilling into the surrounding streets for yet more income. All while claiming their intentions are pure “to provide affordable homes to Londoners”.
Having said that I would much prefer that these brown field sites are used for new builds, because the green belt must be preserved at all cost. So I’m not necessarily against the idea, it’s just that these plans seem to me to be about milking every last penny out of the project and not really about providing quality homes in-keeping with the rest of Barnet.
I spoke to one of the team from the developer about the likelihood of the streets in walking distance of the station being flooded by cars and he said that the council would extend the CPZ even further outwards to stop this happening. Which of course would mean more people having to pay for resident’s parking permits. Strangely, this isn’t mentioned in the parking section of their website!
Agree with comments about no need for commercial space. High Barnet struggles to fill the commercial units we have already. We don’t need another charity shop by the station. Use the space for housing which we desperately need. The parking by the station is expensive and I can’t say I know anyone who lives locally and uses the parking currently available so seems a much better use of the land. Most people walk to the tube. Glad they will include spaces for people with blue badges though.
There are enough shops in the area and a cafe at the station. Ground floor housing is valuable to people with disabilities or if movement reduces as they get older. So it should be housing entirely, no commercial spaces.
I don’t know what part of Barnet you’re living in, but finding places to park is already a real problem in High Barnet. There aren’t enough free spaces, it seems like the entire borough has been swallowed up by the stealth tax that are Controlled Parking Zones, and recent developments regarding the proposed removal of the free 1 hour parking in Moxon street (as well as an overall increase in parking charges) suggests that options are only going to get more limited, so the last thing we need is for the tube car park to close and for that extra parking to flood the already congested streets in and around High Barnet.
Just look at how far down St Albans Road cars park as it is. At first they would only go as far as the cemetery but now they’re often as far down as the bus lay-by outside The Shire. I suspect quite a few of those are headed for the tube or train station so if options do become more limited I can see a future where the cars are parked all the way down towards The Green Dragon!
That’s not a particularly democratic attitude.
If all the current parking spaces are used everyday, that means that less than 3% of the people using High Barnet station are parking there. There is plenty of other car parking space in High Barnet and plenty of public transport that can be used to get to the station.
We can’t prevent young people who are disproportionally affected by the housing crisis and priced out of London from being able to buy or rent houses because a small minority want to drive to the station.
I love when you show pictures of people who turn up to these consultations. It’s always a sea of grey hair. Elderly people unaffected by the housing crisis are objecting to change and new housing for young people. I hope these dreadful NIMBY objections are ignored and we crack on and build housing for young Londoners.
From what I saw of the throng of local people attending this exhibition on plans for High Barnet car park and talking to some folk there the consensus view was that it’s a bad idea. The developers are trying to milk every last drop of profit out of every inch of land. An ill-considered project that would be a blot on the landscape.
I think Mr Bishop sums it up perfectly when he says it’s a “polluted site on unstable ground”. I certainly wouldn’t want to live there. But then I suppose the target demographic for these proposed new builds will be far less discerning.
What’s needed is a park and ride carpark so commuters can use the tube into central London. I have yet to see the carpark even a third empty even on a weekend. People already park by the everyman cinema and walk or bus to the tube. It’s becoming too congested at the bottom of the hill.
The Mayor seems to be oblivious to the fact that ‘active travel’ is not an option for those who might have physical limitations due to age or health issues, but aren’t deemed to be sufficiently disabled to have a blue badge. ‘Active travel’ is also not always a safe option for those travelling home from the tube station alone late at night.