Fans protest against Barnet FC move (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Fans protest against Barnet FC move

11:20am Monday 13th March 2006

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A plan to move Barnet FC to Montrose Park playing fields has met with fierce opposition from Burnt Oak residents.

Campaigners staged a protest outside Hendon Town Hall on Tuesday night and held a public meeting last Thursday. This week, Barnet FC announced that the council had previously looked into using the Montrose for a stadium but had found it unsuitable.

Dan Davison, spokesman for Montrose Park Residents' Association said: "The announcement by the leader of Barnet Council Councillor Brian Salinger to build a major football stadium and associated facilities on Montrose Park playing fields, without warning to the residents or with due process of consultation, was deplorable. We are compelled to respond."

Mr Salinger stood by his suggestion and said: "They didn't invite me to the meeting last Thursday and the club has still not come to talk to me. If the club are interested, then the council and the club together will go and talk to residents and answer questions about their fears and concerns."

The Hendon MP Andrew Dismore, who attended the meeting in St Alphages Church hall, Burnt Oak Broadway, Burnt Oak, along with more than 170 residents, said: "He Mr Salinger was invited and asked me to pass on his apologies, so it is rubbish to say he was never invited.

"People are entitled to have their views heard at an early stage, and it is disgraceful that the council has taken no steps to consult them. It is regrettable that the council still has made no effort to contact local people to establish what they think about the plan."

A Barnet FC spokesman said: "Part of the Chapman and Warren consultation in 1998, which cost taxpayers £130,000, was to investigate sites around the borough. This is what it had to say about Montrose: All access to the site are via existing residential areas and this would cause major problems in terms of amenity to existing residents.' Montrose really is a pipedream."

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