Stadium revamp
Barnet Football Club has announced plans for a £7 million redevelopment of its Underhill stadium, in a move which could secure the club's future in the borough and remove the 'threat of expulsion' from the Football League.
The work would not significantly increase the capacity of the stadium, but would bring it in line with Football League requirements. Planned improvements include the building of new stands behind both goals, new floodlights and a changing room block.
The Bees lodged a planning application with Barnet Council on Monday.
In July last year, the club announced plans to build a 5,000-seat stadium in Canons Park for homeless non-league side Wealdstone FC. That £8m development, 1km outside the borough of Barnet, will include a training ground for the Bees, and an Football Association Centre of Excellence, but was never intended to be a replacement for Underhill.
Under Football League rules, Underhill must have at least 2,000 covered seats by the end of the 2007-8 season next May.
The ground currently has a capacity of around 5,300, but only 1,000 seats are covered. A Football League spokesman this week refused to speculate on what punishment could be imposed if the 2,000-seat target is not met.
Tony Kleanthous, Barnet FC chairman, said: "I know supporters have become frustrated by the lack of information over the past 12 months, but hopefully this planning application will help to reassure them that we are tirelessly beavering away in the background, trying to find a way to meet the League criteria and the raft of new legislation for equal opportunities and disabled provision."
He said the club was still committed to finding a site to build a new stadium, but added that this application, if successful, would mean the club was no longer under threat of expulsion'.
Council leader Mike Freer could not comment on the application itself, but said it was a sign that relations between the club and authority were much improved.
As part of the redevelopment work, the club has offered to buy homes in Westcombe Drive, which back onto the north end of the stadium.
A new stand and office block would be built at that end to
house staff, sports development officers, a police control centre, media room and hospitality rooms.
At the opposite end of the ground, a covered family stand would be built, and would include areas for disabled fans, a ticket office and the club shop. Underhill's eight floodlight pylons would be replaced by four new sets of lights.
Keith Doe, chairman of the Barnet FC Supporters Association, said he was unsure whether the redevelopment would secure the club's long-term future, but agreed it would make Underhill a more pleasant stadium to visit.
He said: "It will be lovely. It will give us a ground that will look a little better than at the moment and have better facilities for disabled and away fans. All I want to see is something that will give the club a long-term future. Anything that improves our current status has to be a good thing.
"I can understand some people won't want to move out of their homes, and that is understandable. It is something all the parties will have to lock horns on."
The club's future at Underhill has been uncertain for some time. In November 2005, Councillor Brian Salinger, then leader of the council, proposed building a new 10,000-seater stadium in the council-owned Montrose Park, in Burnt Oak, in an attempt to keep the club in Barnet. That idea met with widespread criticism and was dropped when Mr Freer became council leader in May last year.
Previous plans to build a new ground at Underhill, or at Copthall Stadium in Mill Hill, were also thwarted.
mdysch@london.newsquest.co.uk
4:50pm Thursday 28th June 2007
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