An action group formed by residents is to be a core participant at a public inquiry to oppose plans for a travellers' caravan site on farmland off Mays Lane, Barnet. An appeal has been launched to raise money for legal representation.
Quinta Village Green Residents Association has secured its position as one of the main parties at the inquiry to be held on January 21 next year.
This will enable the association to present its case against the stationing of caravans on a two-acre paddock – see above -- which is currently used for grazing horses.
Mays Lane residents fear that if the go ahead is given it would be yet another unwelcome development in the Dollis Valley Green Belt.
An appeal to fund the cost of hiring a barrister to represent the residents – who can ask questions on their behalf – met an immediate response.
Within a matter of days, it had topped £2,500 towards the target of £14,000 including over 60 donations ranging from £10 to £250.
www.gofundme.com/f/help-save-the-green-belt-on-mays-lane-in-barnet
Gina Theodorou, the first chair of the newly revived residents’ association, was delighted with the response and said they had to act quickly to prepare for a case conference ahead of the planning inquiry which was due to be held in mid-November.
Landowner Patrick Casey purchased the Mays Lane paddock from the adjoining Brethren Gospel Hall, which is now the Centre for Islamic Enlightening.
He launched an appeal after Barnet Council refused to grant planning permission for two caravans for residential use, together with hardstanding and adjoining day rooms.
His application for change of use is now to be tested at the planning inquiry in January.
There were over 1,300 objections to the original application. Ms Theodorou said the residents’ association welcomed Barnet Council’s decision to continue its objection on planning merits.
“Our campaign is strictly about preserving the Green Belt,” said Ms Theodorou.
“We support the rights of travellers to have a site that they can call home, but we do not believe there should be any development which materially harms the openness and integrity of the Green Belt.
“Underhill is the third most deprived ward in the Borough of Barnet with the third highest rate of residents living in social accommodation including flats which have no private gardens.
“Green Belt land is vital to our health and wellbeing, and we have already lost green space in the Dollis Valley when Partridge Close was developed on former farmland and when a meeting hall for the Brethren was approved on the other side of Mays Lane.”
An early opportunity for residents to raise their concerns was a meeting with Barnet Councillor Tim Roberts who represents Underhill ward.
Ms Theodorou led the deputation to explain their opposition to the siting of caravans when Councillor Roberts met the group at his monthly surgery at St Stephen’s church hall in Bells Hill.
The association takes its name from the nearby Quinta Village Green – a 7.5 acre playing field next to the abandoned Quinta Club which after a long campaign by the residents was awarded village green status in 2010.
A residents’ association, which was first established in 2007 to prevent a football club taking over the playing field, has now been resurrected and named Quinta Village Green Residents Association in recognition of their original success in preserving an important environmental site and in enhancing the surrounding Green Belt countryside.
“There is now huge concern among residents about a development that would threaten the integrity and openness of the woods, fields and farmland which surrounds our village green,” said Ms Theodorou.
“Increasingly we are seeing signs from the new government that housing priorities could undermine the Green Belt.
“Approval in the past for Partridge Close and the Brethren meeting hall was given due to ‘special circumstances’ but they are a perfect example of precedents undermining and weakening the integrity of the Green Belt and a line has to be drawn somewhere.
“We would support and encourage Barnet Council to work with any travellers who are identified as needing caravan pitches and these could be on brownfield sites within the borough or on sites within neighbouring boroughs such as Hertsmere and Enfield where sites already exist or are being considered.”
In the build up to the re-launch of the Quinta Village Green association, one resident approached the Chipping Barnet MP Dan Tomlinson to ask if he would meet them at the paddock and take up their case.
In his reply, Mr Tomlinson said he had taken note of the concerns expressed by nearby residents and he was sure the planning inspector would take full account of their views.
As the application was now with an independent inspector there was no more that he could do. He was sure the decision would be made “impartially and on the balance of the evidence submitted.”
