Still questions for Barnet and Barratt

Tomorrow night Cool Oak will be asking Barnet Council and Barratt PLC at the regular Welsh Harp Joint Consultative Committee meeting why they are still going ahead with the construction of the 200m Silk Stream Bridge when evidence shows it will wreck not low-value woodland but a publicly-funded SSSI wetlands long overdue restoration. Barnet Council have statutory powers to alter or amend a planning application, even once it is granted.

In addition we will be asking them to address (1) recent news that homeowners at the new Hendon Waterside development will be expected to pay First Port (Barratt’s appointed managing agents) for the upkeep of the new bridge, (2) rumours that the bridge will most likely be locked from dusk till dawn due to security concerns, and (3) speculation that the new primary school due to be constructed close to the bridge will not now be built (given that the ferrying of children to the playing fields was one of the main reasons given for building the bridge in the first place.)

Cool Oak has made clear it is not against a bridge per se, and supports an alternative route that skirts the protected area.

For more on the background to this story, see our original 2021 report here, and our 2023 update here.