“ In the absence of further comments from others I feel I must clarify the situation as I see it.
The are two absolutely critical and seemingly unsolvable problems with the proposal for an hotel on the Barnet Market site. 1) It needs FREE parking (probably with as many spaces as there are rooms) to avoid flooding the available free overnight parking in the area. This may be impossible under London-wide policy restricting the number of parking spaces provided for new builds. 2) All pedestrian and vehicle access needs to be through the site of the current Spires service and staff parking yard to avoid dangerous congestion and obstruction in the junctions of the High road, St Albans Road, Bruce Road and Chipping Close. This may be impossible due to the operating requirements of the Spires.
Sorry but all the really excellent work by the developers with some really effective input from local people and their representatives (particularly in the sympathetic style and detailing) really only obscure these problems rather than make them go away. So much effort has gone into this if it was possible to resolve these problems they would have been resolved. Sadly the work to tackle the traffic and parking issues has been limited to saying there won’t be that much – visitors will be expected to pay “reduced” fees to park cars in the Spires and coaches will be expected to use the bus stand in Stapylton Road. In reality People won’t pay for what they can have for free and 52 seater coaches won’t fit on the bus stand usually packed with hopper buses.
The hard fact is the “hotel” will be used as a motel, that is the business Premier Inns are in when they have the choice – building motels near busy highways, just what they would be doing here 3 minutes from the M25 and A1M. High Barnet has always been a road transport hub for people visiting London, it still is with some of the junctions just moved outside town.
Many dedicated people have put a great deal of constructive work into this and can be rightly pleased with what they have achieved but it hasn’t made the access and parking problems go away, problems that should be a deal breaker in any effective planning process. ”