“ This is a huge budget motel without a carpark. It will swamp the surrounding area with guests grabbing all available free overnight parking. The impact on residents and existing visitors will be intolerable.
I note the positive comments above. I have not seen any yet on the council planning portal which requires address and reason for comment.
1.1 Suggestions most guests would be using sustainable transport are spurious. Most people using an hotel in this location will have traveled from outside London by car via the nearby A1M and M25.
1.2 The proposal admits it would result in many more vehicles being parked in the area than the number of parking spaces allowed for the hotel to control the vehicle use it generates. Surely unacceptable.
2.1 It is disingenuous to suggest that hotel guests will pay to park in the Spires overnight when free overnight parking is available in local streets and council carparks.
2.2 The proposed hotel would cause a critical increase in the use of the very limited free visitor and residents’ overnight parking available. This would be a great inconvenience to local residents and other existing visitors.
2.3 If it becomes known that people travelling through the area would be parking locally overnight it would cause an increase in vehicle crime to the detriment of local residents.
3.1 The proposal would use Bruce Road as its primary vehicle access. This would generate increased vehicle traffic to and from Bruce Road at the challenging junction with St Albans Road. The alternatives of Chipping Close or St Albans Road would also be totally inappropriate.
3.2 Commercial vehicle access for hotel services must be by via Bruce Road or the Spires' service yard, the latter displacing shopping centres staff's vehicles into the limited public parking.
3.3 Even if coach bookings are not taken an hotel of this size will generate block bookings that actually arrive by coach. There is no possible safe provision for the inevitable arrivals and departures by coach.
4.1 The proposed change of use would be a loss of an irreplaceable amenity to High Barnet and an appalling imposition on the site’s immediate neighbours.
4.2 The proposed four storey rear elevation onto Bruce Road is of an unacceptable architectural and general aesthetic standard for any new building in an historic town ”