Montrose Park stadium plan is madness

1:27pm Tuesday 20th December 2005

I've probably been a bit slow off the mark, but as a resident of Booth Road, I cannot imagine the madness that is going on inside the heads of the officials who seem to think that Montrose Park is an ideal venue for Barnet FC.

To reiterate the obvious, it is right in the middle of a residential area with no major access roads apart from Aerodrome Road, which, as any local knows, is a nightmare at certain times of the day, with the prospect of that getting worse anyway with the huge housing development going on.

Edgware Road is also very congested, particularly at weekends because of all the car showrooms, shops and DIY outlets.

Colindale station is just around the corner from where I live are we going to be treated to upwards of 10,000 football fans trooping backwards and forwards past our house every time there is a fixture?

And if they are driving, where will they park?

Barnet Council has already succeeded in making parking all over Hendon, Edgware and Colindale as difficult and expensive as possible. More importantly, it will be a nightmare for people whose houses back on to the park or overlook it and where will we walk our dog, together with many other locals?

No doubt the people who came up with this idea live in very cosy residences in some faraway Green Belt area with nice, quiet secluded gardens. We have very little of that left in this area and it is an absolute scandal that this is even being considered.

The other thought was, how is this going to affect the value of property in the area I suspect not favourably, so who will compensate us for that?

We had a petition letter posted through our letterbox last week with the promise of someone calling to collect signatures you can be sure that all five members of this household will be signing, probably in common with most other residents.

Diane David
Booth Road, Colindale