A silver lining from the continuing debacle over the stalled future development of The Spires shopping centre is that the previously abandoned Chipping Close car park has belatedly been re-opened to motorists.

 

Since it was closed in 2018, when the land was sold for an aborted plan to build a 100-bed Premier Inn, this prime site just off the High Street – once the home of Barnet Market -- has remained vacant and unused.

Love Barnet, which promotes High Barnet’s shopping centre, says the additional 40 parking bays released for public use means that there are now a total of 791 parking places available around the town centre.

Britannia Parking, which manages The Spires multi-storey car park, has removed the barriers preventing access.

A new pay machine has been installed for customers.

Motorists must pay on arrival – payment is by card only – and they are warned that the car park is camera controlled.

Charges apply at all times: 1 hour £1; 2 hours £2; 3 hours £3; and up to four hours (maximum stay) £4.

The Chipping Close car park, which is close to the junction of St Albans Road and the High Street, is owned by property developers BYM, who purchased The Spires in May 2021 for £28 million and whose future is now in doubt as the company is in administration.

BYM announced plans to redevelop the five-acre site of The Spires with five blocks of flats of between five and six storeys.

There were also proposals for additional new housing on the site of the Chipping Close car park which BYM had purchased for around £3 million in September 2022.

Approval was granted in November 2018 for a Premier Inn on the Chipping Close car park, but the project was abandoned at the height of the covid pandemic, and the site has remained unused, waiting to be sold and then proposed for redevelopment.

The car park had been resurfaced and was being used on Wednesdays and Saturdays for Barnet Market but early in 2018 the stalls were relocated to the bandstand area at the Waitrose entrance to the shopping centre.

The re-opening the car park does reinforce the view of local community groups that BYM’s continuing financial difficulties indicate that the future development of The Spires redevelopment remains in abeyance, although there have some indications that a revised application is about to be made later this year.

After being cordoned off for so long, motorists seem wary about trying out the new car park – mid morning on the first there was only one car, and similarly only a singe vehicle was parked there mid- morning on Saturday.

A new sole leasing agency – FMX Urban Property Advisers – was appointed earlier this year to boost retail lettings in The Spires Shopping Centre.