'Giant hotel will tower above our homes' (From Times Series)
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Neighbours angry over plans to build 'giant' hotel on Apex Corner
1:45pm Wednesday 6th February 2013 in News
By Natalie O'Neill
KFC on Apex Corner where developers have planning permission to build a hotel
Neighbours have compared a planned four-storey hotel to "an unwelcome giant".
Ace Investments have planning permission to demolish KFC on Apex Corner and construct the new hotel at the intersection between A41 and the A1.
The developers were originally given the go-ahead in 2009 but permission expired after the firm failed to find an operator for the hotel.
Barnet Borough Council’s west area planning sub-committee agreed to give Ace Investments another three years to execute their proposal at a meeting last night.
The proposals show the new hotel could be up to four storeys high at its highest point, with 88 bedrooms and basement parking for 56 vehicles.
But residents in nearby Ellesmere Avenue are angry the council agreed to allow a “giant” hotel to tower above their homes.
Mary D’Silva, who has lived in the road since 1965, collected 18 signatures against the plans.
She said: “It’s disgusting the council has agreed to this – I’m not happy at all. If this hotel is built then we’re going to have to live with an elephant in front of us.
“We’ll have to live with the noise and the increased traffic and it will obstruct the light. We won’t have any privacy. The hotel is going to be an unwelcome giant. It’s simply horrible.”
Indigo Planning submitted the plans on behalf of the developer.
Its director Helen Greenhalgh said: “The decision to renew this planning permission maintains the flexibility for a hotel to be built on the site once a suitable operator has been signed up, and these plans should help create more jobs and boost the local economy.”
Despite the plans being approved, a spokesman for the franchisee who operates KFC in Barnet said: "We are aware of this application, which we understand is being made due to the recent expiry of the previous planning consent. We'd like to assure our customers that there are absolutely no current plans to close the KFC."
