Fans and residents get chance to ask questions about Barnet Football Club’s proposals for a new stadium at Underhill
Barnet Football Club is to hold two meet-the-public events later this month to hear the views of residents and fans before submitting plans to build a new stadium at Underhill as close as possible to its former ground.
Architects and consultants are adding the final touches to the scheme, but the club is anxious to canvass local opinion before submitting a formal application to Barnet Council before the end of the year.
The two public consultation sessions will be held at the Tudor Hall on the Barnet College campus:
Thursday 14 November from 18.00 to 21.00.
Sunday 17 November from 15.00 to 18.00
There will be a chance to put questions to the club’s planning, architectural and transport consultants.
The club’s owner Tony Kleanthous announced in February that he is prepared to meet the cost of moving the club back to Barnet from its current base at The Hive Football Centre, midway between Edgware and Stanmore.
Since making the announcement the club has been seeking to build up support for the move among local residents and community groups.
Distinctive black and yellow posters declaring “Bring Barnet Back” have appeared at several locations – including outside the Hole in the Wall Cafe on the Great North Road.
In a statement announcing a public consultation, the club says it wants to open a dynamic new stadium for the community and fans.
Mr Kleanthous hopes the move will celebrate the club’s long heritage at Underhill where Barnet played for 106 years before moving to The Hive in 2013.
Pre-application discussions have been held with Barnet Council about a scheme to build a stadium for 8,000 spectators on the sports field of the Ark Pioneer Academy, a new school which was constructed at Underhill on the site of the original stadium.
Mr Kleanthous is offering to share use of a new stadium complex and car park with the Ark Academy which he says would be provided with a sports area for pupils and assistance in easing week-day traffic congestion generated by the school.
Barnet Council has already indicated that approval for a new stadium at Underhill within the Green Belt is “highly unlikely” – a warning reinforced by the council leader Barry Rawlings who says he could not envisage the Department of Education agreeing to the loss of Ark Academy’s sports field.
However, there is a considerable expanse of playing fields alongside Barnet Lane and supporters of the move back to Barnet believe there is space for the new stadium alongside the school’s playing field if that met the council’s approval.
Barnet FC is placing great faith in there being such an upsurge in support for the club’s return that the council will be under pressure to look at the application favourably and be flexible about a site in south Underhill.
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As a resident for 20 years this is an amazing idea. Our high street is dead and riddled with crime. This will allow space for young people to play football and engage with community on a flat field. The school supports the scheme and right now the field is fenced off this project would increase biodiversity and open park space. It would help solve traffic problems with new spaces for school parking and traffic calming measures. The current field has a disused pavilion in a fenced off field which will now be open as a community building to serve the community.
The project I create biodiversity, helps solve traffic, engages with the community and will help solve young crime (with youth and school outreach) and help the local economy.
I wondered if the football club’s top brass will be proving any forecasts on the actual numbers fans who would be attending matches at the new ground, if they got the green light to build. This is beside the stated 8,000 capacity. Could go by the recent attendances at The Hive for some indication, although clearly there would likely be some uptick in numbers as the club would back home in Barnet.
Surely that is fundamental to the whole proposition as well the impact on those green fields around the proposed ground.
Absolutely terrible idea. As a local resident of 13 years the green space here is invaluable for the well-being and health of the community. If the Ark wasn’t already in the old stadium’s place, so be it. But the idea of building a stadium on school grounds is ludicrous and I hope quite rightly won’t go through. My son goes there, and the little green space they have is used for all sorts of recreation, not just football. I imagine it would only be accessible to pupils when the stadium wasn’t being used? I would never have sent my child to the school without this space. If it’s built next to the school instead, that further reduces the open spaces of the park, already greatly reduced by the introduction of the astro turfs and fenced off football pitch on the Barnet Lane side. Also the transformation of the field south of the table tennis courts into a Gaelic football pitch which has been deliberately fenced off by the council to prevent walkers using it.
Congestion wise tucked between tiny residential roads there is not room for a school there let alone a school and a stadium.
It feels like the council has been slowly filling all our surrounding green spaces with sports facilities that most of us can’t use. Please find an alternative space!
This is such a great opportunity for the school, the local economy, young generations and community outreach for many years to come. The council and Barnet residents should support this application wholeheartedly.