Vow to fight new football stadium
Burnt Oak residents have promised to fight Barnet Council if it allows Barnet Football Club to build a new stadium in Montrose Park.
Matthew Shahbazi, who has lived in his Booth Road home for 22 years, says that many residents are concerned with the proposed move.
He will now organise a meeting to discuss the offer and ask people living in the area to sign a petition.
Last week, council leader Brian Salinger unveiled a proposal to allow Barnet FC to construct a stadium at Montrose Avenue.
The park was found to be the only site in the borough which fitted the Mayor of London's criteria for stadium planning application, as the land is not in the Green Belt or on Metropolitan Open Land.
The club has yet to express a firm opinion on the offer.
It will wait for more information before pinning its colours to any particular mast, but in a statement issued on the team's web site this week, club spokesman Dennis Signy, said: "All our discussions with Mr Salinger since he took office as leader have concerned the chairman's Working Together
document. If the leader is now saying that through his best endeavours he has identified a site for a long-term solution for a new stadium in the borough, why cannot he support the club's other proposals a short-term solution at Underhill, a training ground and an academy?"
Between one third to a half of the 11-acre site could be used for the new stadium, but residents are opposed to any part of the park being used for a football stadium. "The council just gives us rubbish," said Mr Shahbazi. "I did not elect this man, Brian Salinger. He is just thinking about politics. The land belongs to the people in this area and we are going to be fighting it 100 per cent."
A feasibility proposal for a stadium at Montrose Park is being prepared.
2:00pm Friday 25th November 2005
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