Barnet Council has validated proposals seeking planning permission for the redevelopment of the Great North Leisure Park (GNLP) and adjacent land.
Proposals include the demolition of existing buildings and phased redevelopment to provide a new leisure centre, residential dwellings, flexible commercial space, a sports-changing pavilion, landscaping, parking, access, and associated works across the 4.93-hectare site.
Plans have been prepared on behalf of the applicant who is a subsidiary of homes for market sale property developer Regal, the applicant has appointed principal project architects JTP and landscape architects BMD.
The application site has been used for swimming-based recreation since the 1930s with the opening of the Finchley Open Air Pool, which remained open until the early 1990s when it was redeveloped to make way for the GNLP that operates today.
The GNLP includes Finchley Leisure Centre alongside a range of commercial leisure uses. The adjacent land to the north within the Site includes a mix of indoor and outdoor sports facilities owned by the local planning authority.
The Site currently operates as a leisure park with large-format food and entertainment outlets, including restaurants, fast-food venues, a cinema, bowling alleys, a leisure centre, and a lido. The Site consists of over 80% hardstanding, featuring 700 parking spaces and a mix of mid-low-rise, low-density, ‘big-box’ commercial units.
Planning policy at all levels requires the delivery of homes to be significantly boosted, with the 2024 consultation on the NPPF proposing London’s target increases from its current London Plan (2021) target of 52,300 homes per year to 80,000 homes per year.
In addition, over the 12 months to March 2024, there has been a 92% reduction in affordable home starts in London compared to the previous 12-month period, yet LB Barnet’s housing waiting list is only continuing to grow, doubling in the period since March 2020.
The application proposes a new replacement leisure which would supersede the one opened in the early 1990s. The application proposes new additions including; a dedicated learning pool, a doubling in the stations of the fitness suite, and multipurpose use/party rooms which are not available in the current facility. The new centre would be owned by the local authority but operated by a third-party provider.
Across all phases, 1,502 new homes are proposed for the application site. This is set to comprise a mix of market (77%), affordable rent (14%), and intermediate (9%) tenures (calculated by habitable room). 325 will be affordable (23% by habitable room), across a variety of sizes to meet a broad range of housing needs, including 891 (49%) being family-sized classed as being two-bedroom four-person homes or larger.
The poor access to public transport with a PTAL rating of 2, results in the new scheme having a provision of 423 total car parking spaces below in a secured basement, which represents a reduction of the current spaces of 39% when compared to the current site condition.
The flexible commercial spaces are set aside as car-free. This is reinforced by a total of 2,664 long-stay cycle parking spaces and 180 short-stay spaces.
The current London Plan mandates the installation of a fully electric Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) system and photovoltaic (PV) panels. This will achieve a 61% on-site carbon reduction over part L 2021 requirements non-residential element of the development will also be fully electric, utilising both ASHP and PV panels. This will achieve a 100% on-site carbon reduction over part L 2021 requirements.
The development is principally centered around four superblocks of residential dwellings, above a basement parking space thus making the space at ground level broadly car-free. Replacement of a car-centric environment characterised by poor-quality buildings and surface car parking that blocks off access to the Glebelands open space.
This would be bordered by replacement leisure and recreation uses to the north in the form of the replacement leisure centre, as well as four of the taller buildings within the entire masterplan on the eastern edge with improved accessibility to the Glebelands for improved physical and visual connectivity/visibility to encourage its use for sport and recreation.
Elsewhere within Barnet in Edgware town centre, a similar residential lead scheme would replace a surface car parking was submitted to the same planning authority last summer and is currently under consideration.
