This week Chipping Barnet MP Sir Sydney Chapman talks about his fears for the future of Underhill:

What on earth is happening at Underhill, the home of Barnet Football Club?

I am not only anxious about the future of our 112-year-old club after the Bees were demoted from the Football League at the end of last season. And I'm not only worried about getting a new stadium for the club, be it at Underhill or elsewhere.

I am also concerned about the proposal to take the site and a chunk of land to the south of it out of the Metropolitan Green Belt, when there seems to be no reason for doing so.

Such a proposal emanates from the review of our borough's unitary development plan. Barnet was the first London borough to have its development plan approved in the 1980s.

It is not time to update it.

In the first draft, the council proposed that the stadium should be taken out of the Green Belt, but in a further revision it now proposes that a hectare (2.5 acres) of open land to the immediate south should also be excluded.

Why? Superficially, the answer is that the additional land would be needed if the club was to redevelop Underhill in accordance with recommendations following the Hillsborough disaster.

However, sporting and recreational facilities are legitimate uses on Green Belt land, so why is there a need to redesignate the site, especially when the original Green Belt boundary was deliberately drawn in to include the football ground?

There is an added dimension here. Under the Greater London Authority Act, significant planning applications must be referred to the Mayor of London. With regard to Green Belt land, any new use (or change of use) of more than 1,000 square metres must be referred.

Last year Ken Livingstone was opposed to taking the stadium out of the Green Belt. However, more recently he withdrew his objections to the larger site.

Presently, Barnet Council is considering all representatives and it is expected that a public inquiry will be held next year. In the meantime, I ask why does our council want to change the use of the Underhill site and why is it necessary to do so?

At this stage, I can only offer this uncharitable thought. Suppose the stadium redevelopment does not go ahead. Barnet Council, which owns the land, could give itself planning permission to develop the site for almost whatever purpose it wanted.

July 31, 2001 13:06