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as it was known locally

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Not content with 1,350 flats in blocks up to 9 storeys high, the Comer Group has announced plans to cram in another 1,078 flats and make the blocks up to 13 storeys high! Apart from the pressure on local services and transport, there would be only 17 parking spaces for every 20 flats on the whole site, so the surrounding roads would be severely blighted by overspill parking.
Full details and how you can object to Barnet Council are available on my campaign website nlbp.eastbar.net where you can also join the mailing list to keep up to date.

the additional storeys are shown in blue

MP for Chipping Barnet, Theresa Villiers, says "These plans are disgraceful. The last application for 1350 flats and houses was already an overdevelopment of the site. To squeeze in over a thousand new flats and raise building heights to as much as 13 storeys is completely unacceptable.
I will be fighting strongly against these plans. They violate a long list of crucial planning rules. The surrounding suburban area is largely made up of homes of just one or two storeys. 13 storey tower blocks should have no place in Barnet's low-rise suburban neighbourhoods. Many of my constituents are appalled by what Comer Homes want to do. I'm not surprised. So am I. I will do whatever I can to try to stop this from going ahead. Residents have my full support."

After many years of controversy, in January 2020 the Government's Secretary of State over-ruled everyone and allowed the development of 1,350 homes on the site, including buildings up to nine storeys high.
This is despite campaigns by local residents, Chipping Barnet's MP, local ward Councillors, Barnet Council's planners, the London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden, and the Mayor of London all opposing planning permisson on the grounds that there would be too many homes, and the high-rise tower blocks would be inappropriate near the surrounding two storey houses and bungalows.
And of course the residents of this new town will probably try to commute into London somehow, on the tubes trains and buses which are already overcrowded during peak times, or along the narrow roads which are gridlocked. And they will compete with existing residents for school places for their children, GPs, hospitals, etc.

The decision of the (then) Secretary of State for Housing - Robert Jenrick - is final and cannot be appealed.

(the photo is from the Barnet Times, click it to read the full article)

This website is my attempt to chart the New Southgate site's history from the days before STC first started to use it
until Nortel Networks bought it in 1991 then sold it in 2002.
And beyond - to be nosey about what happens to it in the future.

On this website we can have photos, descriptions, reminiscences, videos and even sounds if they exist!
Thanks to Rob White for maintaining this site from 2002 to 2024