Environmentalists staged a protest over plans for the “unsustainable” Brent Cross shopping centre regeneration.

Barnet’s Green Party parliamentary candidates - AM Poppy for Chipping Barnet, Adele Ward for Finchley and Golders Green, and Ben Samuel for Hendon – draped a banner over the North Circular Road at Brent Cross last Friday.

An estimated 7,500 new homes will be built as part of the £4billion scheme, as well as a new ‘living bridge’ over the A406 for cyclists and pedestrians.

Adele Ward said that although new housing was needed, a future shortage of school places could be a big problem.

She added: “Because the council isn't allowed to build schools for these new homes, people worry it’s going to be a problem. People enjoy Brent Cross, and they want to see it redeveloped, but they are worried it will be overdeveloped, and become a place they wouldn’t want to use themselves.

"It’s just the right size at the moment. People feel they will lose what is good about it. We want it redeveloped, but in a different way. We also need new leisure centres.”

AM Poppy said: “The 29,000 extra car journeys per day envisaged and the added roads planned take us in exactly the wrong direction. The idea of a living bridge is also a mystery.

“A town centre should be the beating heart of a living community, but to call it a town centre is objectionable. It takes business away from our genuine town centres and high streets, which we are strongly in defence of.”

Ben Samuel expressed his concern at the plans for the “high-rise, luxury blocks of flats” which were planned.

He added: “I don’t think they do anything for zero-carbon homes and affordable homes for the people who are being displaced by regeneration. It’s ambiguous.”