Hammerson and Barnet grab Cricklewood's Clitterhouse Farm

From Clitterhouse Farm Project:

"During the public planning consultation held in the summer of 2013 we rallied together and with your help - 'saving the farm for community use' - was raised as the second highest priority area for the community. At the planning committee 30th January 2014 councillors and the developers recognised the buildings as a potential valuable community resource. In October 2014 in a meeting with Hammerson and Barnet we were informed that the buildings were to be retained. Since then we have had numerous meetings and negotiations with the council and Hammerson where we have made it clear that it is our intention to restore the entire site for community use.

"The latest amendments to Barnet's reserved matters application - which includes the farm - show that they want to take buildings and external courtyard space for a park maintenance depot (see image).

"If you would like to download the relevant documents, click this link:
http://clitterhouse.com/wp-content-cfp/uploads/BXC_CFP_Amended_Planning_Documents.zip
It will automatically download a ZIP file of three PDF files. Search for the word ‘farm’ in the PDF to find the relevant sections.

"Clitterhouse Farm Project will be strongly objecting to these plans on just some of the following grounds (below).

• A maintenance depot with heavy machinery is not ‘community use’. Our community has lost several valuable assets already such as Hendon Football club and the green triangles on nearby Brent Terrace and potentially the green space outside B&Q on Cricklewood Lane. We cannot afford to lose another space to this development. We need these spaces to meet and interact and form the backbone of a strong and cohesive community


• This proposal damages the financial viability of our community project by severely reducing the usable space within the site and may jeopardise our prospects of accessing funding the refurbishment of the buildings. Clitterhouse Farm Project has built financial projections - based on information in previous planning applications that stated that the parks team would need 2,800 sq feet of the farm site. This amendment represents a significant increase in that area by 1,200 sq feet and undermines the financial sustainability of an important community enterprise


• Removing such a large section of the courtyard damages the unique architectural quality of the Victorian farmyard. We value the heritage of the building and feel that design layout undermines them


• There is an inappropriate and incompatible use of space. A large depot such as this will represent a health and safety risk. The size and scale of the depot is unacceptable given its proximity to our proposed community facilities, Claremont primary school, the entrance to the playing fields and the nearby residential buildings


• The consultation process has been very poor. Local residents and community groups have been given too little time to respond to the lengthy and detailed plans. In this instance we have had seven days to respond by the time we were informed of the latest consultation and the impending deadline on the 5th June


• The detailed design plans of the farm should be treated as a separate planning application so that the community can be engaged in a genuine consultation process.

"Please take five minutes to respond and have your say. Feel free to expand if you feel we have missed any important points. Your voice is important. If you have an opinion on this issue, you need to speak up. Do not copy and paste this text as your comments will be ignored.

"Email your objections directly to Thomas Wyld: thomas.wyld@barnet.gov.uk using reference 15/00769/RMA, and copy to planning.consultation@barnet.gov.uk."