Lengthy discussions ahead as Barnet Football Club presses on with plan to return the club to “where it belongs” at Underhill

Barnet Football Club has completed another stage in its attempt to gain approval from Barnet Council for the construction of a 7,000-seat stadium on playing fields at Underhill.

A planning application submitted at the end of last year has now been validated – a step which enables the club’s consultants and architects to start pre-application discussions with officers in the council’s planning department.

Club chairman Tony Kleanthous said he was delighted progress was being made.

He hoped Barnet FC would now receive the full support of the council and help bring “our incredible club back home”.

While the Bring Barnet Back Campaign, which has 5,000 supporters, is equally delighted with the publication of the application – www.newunderhill.com – there are signs of mounting opposition to the loss of open playing fields along Barnet Lane.

A petition to the council with the title “Save Barnet Playing Fields” – see www.change.org – has already attracted well over 18,000 signatures.

It opposes the loss of “a green space vital to the health and wellbeing of local residents”. 

The playing fields are described as “an irreplaceable community asset” which provide space for recreation and exercise and could not accommodate “an oversized project that local infrastructure simply cannot support”.

After first suggesting the possibility of using the school playing field of the Ark Pioneer Academy – which was built on the site of the original Underhill football ground — Mr Kleanthous has decided instead to see whether Barnet Council will give permission for a site further south along Barnet Lane.

The outline application proposes the construction of a £14 million stadium on council-owned playing fields which back on to Grasvenor Avenue and which extend south to the Dollis Valley London Loop footpath.

The club says both the academy and the school’s playing field would not be affected by the proposed stadium and the new location would move the stadium away from the densest residential area.

All the stands, except the west stand, would be a lightweight structure of modular construction and prefabrication.

Refreshment kiosks would be mobile and only function during match-days.

Barnet moved to The Hive Football Centre – midway between Edgware and Stanmore – in 2013 after a protracted dispute between Mr Kleanthous and the council over the refusal to grant planning permission for a larger stadium.

The Underhill ground was put up for sale in 2014 and was purchased by the Department of Education as a site for a new free school — Ark Pioneer Academy — which opened in 2019.

But after a well over a decade at The Hive, Mr Kleanthous says he recognises that the town of Barnet has suffered from the loss of its football club.

“This is an attempt to see if we can return to Barnet. A new stadium at Underhill would benefit the town and help ensure a sustainable future for Barnet FC.”