Underhill stadium sold for new school

Barnet Football Club’s vacant stadium at Underhill has been purchased by the government’s Education Funding Agency as a site for a new free school. Two applications for new schools to serve the Barnet area are currently being considered by the Department for Education.

A planning application by the agency to build a new school on the site is expected to be submitted shortly to Barnet Council, signalling the last chapter in what became a tortuous saga surrounding the final years of professional football at Underhill.

Barnet FC moved to the Hive Football Centre in Camrose Avenue, Edgware, in April 2013, and there has been speculation for some months that Underhill could be redeveloped as the site for a school.

Anthony Kleanthous, the Barnet FC chairman, confirmed the sale in a statement on the club’s website (www.barnetfc.com). The announcement had been delayed for legal reasons and because the club had been anxious to avoid clashing with the general election campaign.

Mr Kleanthous thinks there is little if any chance of Barnet FC returning to the town in the foreseeable future, and says the Back to Barnet campaign should realise it is “probably time to move on”.

Two applications to open new free schools for the Barnet area were submitted to the Department for Education at the end of May – the deadline for new academies and free schools that plan to open for the September 2017 intake.

The more ambitious of the two projects was launched in 2013 by a group of teachers and parents who want to establish the Ara School for both primary and secondary pupils. Their aim is to open a school that would seek to align the UK national curriculum to the International Baccalaureate.

An application to establish a new Church of England free school has been submitted by the four churches in the Parish of Chipping Barnet. Their aim is to offer 60 places each year from 2017 onwards, with a two-form entry for four- to five-year olds.

Both bids are now being considered by the Department for Education. On its website (www.araschool.org), the team behind the Ara School project say they “have their fingers crossed” and hope to hear the government’s response later in the year.

Judy Burstow, a leading member of the group behind the application for the new free school in the Parish of Chipping Barnet (www.chippingbarnetcofeschool.weebly.com), said they were waiting for a formal interview by the Department.

The Education Funding Agency manages a £54 billion schools education budget on behalf of the government and is responsible for purchasing sites and premises for new free schools and academies.

In his statement explaining Barnet FC’s move to the Hive – ending 106 years at the Underhill stadium – Mr Kleanthous said he tried without success for 20 “long years” to persuade Barnet Council to allow the club either to expand at Underhill or to move to a new site in the borough.

He blamed the decision to move out of Barnet on the knife-edge political control of the council and the “continual changing politics” of those in control.

“It is disappointing that local councillors were unable or unwilling to fight to keep the greatest sporting community asset this borough could have hoped for, but that is history now and we have moved on to pastures new, starting a new chapter at the Hive”.