Barnet Market has been a much loved part of our local community for over 800 years, since August 1199, when King John signed a charter which granted Barnet the right to hold a trade market. In modern times, the Market has continued to provide a much valued shopping facility where local people can pick up bargains.
In recent years, however, the privately owned market has suffered from a series of setbacks. Some years ago, the owners of the market were granted planning permission to redevelop the site in St Alban’s Road, so long as they continued to provide a home for the market. The Council stepped in to provide a temporary site for the market in Stapylton Road. However, the redevelopment plans stalled and all the market owners have managed to do is demolish the facilities on the St Alban’s Road site and cover it with a hard, stony and uneven surface which both traders and shoppers find unsatisfactory.
The current planning permission is expiring and the market owners have applied for an extension. I am concerned that if this is successful, this will prolong the uncertainty around the market’s future and traders and shoppers will begin to drift away.
That’s why I met with the Friends of Barnet Market, a group of local volunteers determined to save the market. I then wrote to Barnet Council to oppose the application for an extension.
I am concerned that the development proposed in the current planning consent would not provide adequate facilities to traders for parking, loading, unloading and storage. I also want to see the uncertainty surrounding the future of Barnet Market brought to an end as quickly as possible. The market owners were first granted planning permission to redevelop the site over ten years ago. Even their second permission (the one they are now seeking to extend) was granted long before the credit crunch made financing such developments difficult.
I do not see that granting them even more time would produce the right result for the market or the community. That said, I fully recognise that while the Council has been very supportive of the market at a political level, planning decisions have to be made purely on the basis of legally binding planning rules. The grounds for refusing an extension are very narrow, leaving the Council with very limited options.
But I think it’s vital that the future of the Market is considered in the context of a wider discussion across the local community about the future of the Spires and the whole Chipping Barnet town centre. I strongly believe that with the right support, the Market has the potential to become a major magnet for trade and shoppers, and could play an invaluable role in boosting our local high street. Starting afresh with new plans to safeguard the long term future of the Market could provide the chance to turn it into the real success it could so easily be.