“ At the planning meeting I did not say there were 3 objections from the 3 nearby roads - it is an error in the report. I said 5 in Strafford, 1 in Carnarvon and 1 in Sailisbury. It seems I miscounted for Strafford but the essential point remains that very few residents in these roads opposed the scheme. Look in the report of the Barnet Society figures from their survey which confirms this - just 4 out of 23 consulted opposed, and I understand most of those lived in Chipping Close.
We have sympathized with the Chipping Close residents - on the first application we considered there would be too much intrusion and campaigned on their behalf. The three issues we pressed on were precisely the same three reasons for refusal of that application.
We told our members we had no objection to the second application and apart from a small number of members who have vehemently campaigned against the scheme just ONE other out of nearly 700 members wrote to express disagreement.
We consider our primary role is to act on the best interests of the wider community in the High Barnet and Underhill areas. Given the positive reaction we get to most of what we do we are comfortable with the decisions we take as an elected committee representing a fair cross- section of the local populace. As with the Barnet Society, we are very open about what we do and explaining why. A number of people feel very strongly that we took the wrong decision on the Inn and as above are being very voluble about it. But we remain confident that the vast majority of residents were in support or at least saw no reason to oppose, and we have fairly represented that view.
Gordon Massey, Barnet Residents Association ”