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| Save The Midland - pub & music venue |
The Barnet Eye has been spearheading the campaign to save the pub from demolition. We have been working with local residents, councillors, MP's and pub campaigners to ensure that the pub is preserved.
We have been following the story from the start and will continue to support the campaign.
The planning application is still pending decision. Officers know that the local community and cllrs andMP are against the planning application. Officers also hold significant objections to the planning application, which were conveyed to the applicant in the autumn. In response to the objections that we expressed, officers met with the applicants planning team & received a commitment to withdraw the application (rather than it be refused) by 31 January, so that they can establish the feasibility of accommodating the changes requested. If they do not withdraw the application, the only other option is for officers to refuse. The changes that we need to see happen are too significant to be consistent with or similar to the current planning application. The case officer is chasing them, and officers won't entertain changes to the scheme and will not be recommending an approval. Any decision to approve the application will require a decision to be made by the Area Planning Committee (v unlikely!). All changes dictate consultation with the public and a new application will be advertised to residents when and if received.The Barnet Eye is slightly concerned that having collected over 500 objections against the original application, a whole new batch of objections will have to be collected if the new proposal referred to happens to involve the demolition of the pub. We will keep you informed.
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1 comment:
Withdrawal or rejection and appeal, that is the question: either way we residents and supporters seem condemned to repeat the objection process from scratch, potentially again and again... a truly Sisyphusian task.
The planners have made it clear that the current application is unacceptable in it's current form, and that an amended scheme would not be materially similar and would not constitute the same application or development.
As regards the Midland Hotel, with support from the London Plan (2016) and the National Planning Policy Framework (2012 and 2018) there is now a presumption against the loss of the Midland which is now being utilised by the planning officers in the case against the application.
The recent Asset of Community Value listing granted to the Midland significantly impacts upon any future development plan and is likely to change thinking for all parties concerned. It would be an astonishing set of circumstances indeed for Barnet to list the building one minute, and agree to its demolition the next!
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