Residents in High Barnet neighbourhood concerned about plans for large new sports hall at Queen Elizabeth’s School

Some residents in roads around Queen Elizabeth’s Boys School have registered objections with Barnet Council over an application to construct a new multi-use sports hall.

They fear the four-storey building will dominate the area and generate added traffic congestion.

Sports groups and other community organisations would be able to hire the new facilities during evenings, weekends and school holidays, as is already the case with QE’s swimming pool and recital hall.

Above changing rooms on the ground floor of the new building, there would be a high ceiling sports hall with layouts for basketball, five-a-side football, badminton and table tennis and on the top floor ten new classrooms.

Outside there would be six cricket practice nets and six Eton fives courts with a tiered seating area for 64 spectators.

Many of the objections registered so far with the council are from residents of Regina Close – see above – which is next to the main Queens Road entrance to the school.

They say the construction of a mega sports hall so close to their homes would be incongruous and out of character, as it would be two storeys higher than other buildings on the school site.

Classrooms on the top floor would have a direct line of sight into the bedrooms of the Regina Close houses.

An overriding objection of residents in Regina Close, Queens Road and Granville Road is their fear that developing a sports hall, open seven days a week, all year round, would exacerbate the already “terrible” traffic congestion around the school.

Yet another attraction in out-of-school hours would only compound what they say is the failure of QE’s administrative staff to tackle uncontrolled parking by parents and traffic jams caused by the arrival and departure of a dozen or more coaches and mini-buses taking pupils to destinations across north and west London.  

Disturbance to the neighbourhood continues outside the school week as the swimming pool is hired out at weekends despite a claim by residents that the original planning conditions ruled out use on Sundays.

Objections registered by residents of Byng Road, which adjoins the school’s northern playing field, say they oppose the felling of five established oaks which are the subject of tree protection orders.

Currently a line of oaks forms the northern boundary of the school site, and objectors say that a continuous border of established trees would be lost to make way for the Eton five courts and other facilities.

A single-storey former music block next to the swimming pool – see above – would be demolished to make way for the new sports hall.

When the plans were displayed at a public presentation, planning consultants insisted the new sports hall was being provided within what was already a “tight campus” which explained why the school had to intensify the use of existing buildings and the areas which could be redeveloped.

QE Boys – as it is still known locally – is a state-funded grammar school for boys with an annual intake of 192 pupils, a figure which the school says will remain unchanged.

 Fund raising will start next year if permission is obtained for what the school says is part of a continuing programme to upgrade facilities within its existing site.

Applications will be made for government financial support and sports grants and an appeal launched among ex-pupils. The aim would be to start construction in 2028 and complete the work in 2029.

For full details of QE’s application see Barnet Council planning application 26/3400/FUL. Closing date for comment Thursday 5 November.