Barnet (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Barnet councillors rejected plans for 1,500 homes and a leisure centre in North Finchley, raising concerns that the scheme would be overbearing.
It was suggested that Great North Leisure Park undergo a “comprehensive redevelopment” that would feature a new recreation center and 20 structures, the tallest of which would be 25 stories high. According to Regal London’s proposal in Barnet, 341 new homes, or 25% of the total number of usable rooms, would be considered affordable.
But this summer, around 8,000 people signed a petition urging a halt to the development. Anne Hutton, a Woodhouse ward council member and member of the Labour Party, made a deputation at a strategic planning committee meeting last Thursday, the 4th, to decide the application. The application would be “more suited to a town center,” she claimed, calling the tower buildings “overbearing on the landscape.”
Although the current plan was “too dense,” Cllr. Hutton acknowledged that “some residential” would be appropriate. She said:
“We need the housing, when I first looked at this a year ago I did say we need the housing, but not at any cost. Like I’ve said, the density, the environment and also the poor transport links lead me to think this is too much on this particular site.”
At the meeting, Sarah Sackman, the Labour MP for Finchley and Golders Green, also read a statement. She stated that although more housing was required, the current concept “wasn’t satisfactory.”According to Sackman, the plan must prevent “loss of provision,” provide more “genuinely” inexpensive housing, and improve public transportation and services to satisfy the “anticipated demand.”
The current Hollywood Bowl and Vue Cinema would be razed as part of the plans, and
“no comparable replacements”
would be offered on the property. However, in June, council members authorized a separate project for a nearby location that included a new movie theater and bowling alley.The application was represented by Avison Young agent Nick Alston and Regal planning director Steve Harrington. According to Nick, the location is a “textbook example” of how planning regulations
“encourage us to optimise to meet the housing and other needs of Londoners.”
He stated that the plan’s goal was to establish a new
“health and wellbeing destination”
and that the design of the new recreation center represented
“a significant improvement over the existing facility including an increase in water area.”
According to Nick, the program was offering
“25% more affordable housing than required by policy”
and homes were “desperately needed.” He said the greatest quantity of affordable housing the program could support was zero and that was confirmed by the council’s independent vitality assessor. If grant funding from the Greater London Authority becomes available, Regal will raise the percentage of affordable housing to 40%. Clarion Housing will oversee the scheme’s affordable housing.
Phil Cohen, a committee member, questioned if the applicant sought to
“maximize the number of units”
or was “conscious” of the scheme’s density.Nick emphasized that it was “different to maximize” and stated that planning regulations “set a challenge” to “optimize the potential of all sites.”
He said that wind, sunshine, and sunlight studies “supported” the plan and that the applicant’s team had made sure the residences were “to a high quality.”Eight commission members suggested to reject the offer after the further than two- hour discussion, with one member abstaining, despite officer recommendations to authorize it.
Nigel Young, the president of the commission, stated that the base for the rejection was the conviction that” detriment” would affect from the development.
He epitomized the plans as
” out of character with the girding area”
and asserted that their
” height, bulk, mass, and viscosity” would” affect in over development of the point,”
affecting the quantum of public transportation and
” creating detriment to the proposed terrain and girding area.”
How will this decision affect the developer Arada London’s next steps?
Arada London faces a reversal from Barnet Council’s December 8, 2025 rejection of its 1,500- home Great North Leisure Park scheme, but the inventor fresh from UAE- backed accessions expanding its UK channel to 30,000 units will probably appeal to the Planning Inspectorate within six months while pursuing indispensable spots amid London’s casing deficit.
The decision halts the £500m design on the 11- hectare Finchley point (acquired via Regal), taking Arada to absorb sunk costs on design/ planning; no fiscal penalties apply yet, but detainments risk rising construction affectation and lostpre-sales instigation.
Accelerate other systems like Thameside West (5,000 homes, £2.5 bn), Southwark’s Newington Causeway co- living/ hostel, using £2.5 bn UAE commitment and Regal integration for 16,000 channel adaptability.
