Councillors have been accused of treating Barnet FC fans with ‘disdain’ after the club’s promotion to League Two only sharpened the sting of the club’s stadium being outside the borough.
The “Back to Barnet” campaign was dealt a blow by Barnet Council in July after plans for a 7,000-seat stadium on Barnet Playing Fields were rejected.
The campaign argues a ground in the borough would provide growth potential for the club and the community, as well as bolstering local pride.
Barnet FC fan Robert Delaney said: “We’re now a football league club again, but we don’t own our own stadium.
“It’s disappointing not to be back in Barnet when it’s such a historic moment for the football club. The way in which local councillors treated the club is with disdain to be honest. That councillors vetoed having our stadium back over noise complaints and some otters is frankly ridiculous.”
LBC pundit Ben Kentish attended a Barnet Council meeting in July and spoke on air about how plans were stifled by “bloviating, self serving NIMBYs concerned more with the potential impact on otters than a multi million pound injection into the local economy”.
Councillors had praised the idea of bringing the Bees back from their current base at The Hive in Harrow, but ruled that the loss of protected green space outweighed the benefits.
A counter “Save Barnet Playing Fields” campaign argued that prioritising the health and wellbeing of residents who used the green space superseded “commercial interests”.
Keith Doe, Barnet FC Supporters Association spokesperson, said: “When you build a stadium it’s going to have an impact on some space somewhere. There’s got to be a compromise, and what happens on Barnet Playing Fields today could still happen even with a stadium there.
”We always knew it was going to be a difficult sell and we’re sympathetic to that, but we think there’s a significant benefit of a football club coming back to the town.
“A football club like Barnet should be at the heart of the community. For 120 odd years we were based in the town and for us to be no longer there is a great shame, not just for the football club, but for the local community and the high streets.”
The plans for the proposed stadium included estimates that it would be worth £2.3 million a year to the local economy, according to the Supporters Association, and would have also been a centre for food banks and local charities.
Despite the rejection, the group maintained that campaigners were on good terms with both the councillors involved and Chipping Barnet MP Dan Tomlinson who they claimed “fully understands the importance of it”.
However, Delaney had harsher words for the politicians involved.
He said: ”Dan Tomlinson moving up to a high position in the Treasury on this position of pro growth, whilst his own constituency is missing out on the biggest opportunity for growth in a generation is quite disappointing.
“I really do hope that Dan doesn’t forget his constituents.”
Tomlinson was promoted to Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury earlier this month and styled the Government’s “Growth Mission Champion”.
He published an op-ed last week in which he pledged to continue to “put Chipping Barnet first”.
Another fan, who wished to remain anonymous, also felt let down.
He said: “The fact we play in Harrow when all our fans are from Barnet is a joke. The Hive is fine, but our away stand was sold off to Exeter city so there’s only three stands in the stadium, which makes it harder to create a good atmosphere.
“People say keep politics out of football but I think this is politics that needs to be kept in football because this is facing clubs up and down the country. Oxford United is another club that really needs to move the stadium but can’t.
“We hope local councillors come to their senses at some stage but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen any time soon.”
Doe seemed more optimistic however, promising that the ‘Back to Barnet’ campaign would, indeed, be back.
He concluded: “We are continuing, and we’re moving to establish how we can all move forward to a resolution that everybody can get behind and support”.
Dan Tomlinson MP and Barnet Council were both contacted for comment.
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