East Finchley Nursery Play Area Decision Due Wednesday

Barnet’s Planning Committee will decide on Wednesday 28 October whether a day nursery in East Finchley can turn part of its car park into an outdoor play area.

Councillors voted against their officers’ advice to refuse it two weeks ago. Wednesday’s meeting is where they confirm that decision or change their minds.

The meeting starts at 7pm at Hendon Town Hall, The Burroughs, NW4, according to the agenda. It has two applications to decide. The second is an extension to a nursing home in High Barnet.

Langley House, Park Road, East Finchley

The application, 26/0710/FUL, would turn part of the rear car park at Langley House into a fenced play area for the nursery inside the building. Langley House was a church hall and later offices. The office use ended in October 2025.

The nursery itself does not need planning permission, because offices and nurseries sit in the same use class. The play area does, because it changes the use of the car park.

The officers’ report still recommends refusal, for two reasons:

• Noise. The council’s Environmental Health officers object. The nursery can take up to 120 children and 35 staff. The applicant’s own noise study describes groups of 10 to 20 children using the space from 7am to 5.45pm, producing 64 to 70.8 decibels. Officers say homes on Park Road and Lingwood Court overlook the play area directly.
• Parking. The play area would take out eight of the site’s parking spaces. Officers say that could push drop-offs onto the surrounding roads.

The public response leaned the other way. The report records 37 comments in support and 9 objections.

At the meeting on 14 October, councillors voted 7 to 0 against refusal and deferred the application. Under the council’s constitution, a committee that wants to overturn officers has to come back to a later meeting to confirm it.

The conditions if councillors approve

Officers have drafted conditions in case the committee grants permission. They include:

• the play area can be used only from 9am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, and never at weekends or on bank holidays
• a noise management plan must be approved before first use, setting out play periods, the maximum number of children in each and the gaps between them
• acoustic fencing must be approved and built before the play area opens
• two parking bays must be kept for the nursery

The 9am start is two hours later than the 7am start in the applicant’s noise study.

One objector, who spoke on behalf of neighbours on 14 October, has written in again since. They ask for any permission to set hours, quiet periods during the day, a cap on numbers and a complaints procedure. They want these “secured through the planning permission itself rather than left to informal assurances”.

The application was called in to committee by Cllr Alison Moore. She asked councillors to look at the gap between the applicant’s noise study and Environmental Health’s view. She also questioned whether parking would be affected, saying the area of car park concerned “appeared to have only one car in it during a weekday afternoon”.

Abbey Ravenscroft Park Nursing Home, High Barnet

The second application, 26/0722/FUL, is for part single-storey, part two-storey extensions to the Abbey Ravenscroft Park Nursing Home at 1-6 Ravenscroft Park, EN5. The home is in the Wood Street Conservation Area.

The officers’ report recommends approval. It says the scheme would take the home from 74 to 92 rooms in total. That figure includes 11 rooms approved in March 2024 when No 1 Ravenscroft Park, then two flats, was joined to the home. The home now has 85 rooms, so this application adds 7 more.

It goes to committee because 14 people objected. Under the constitution, 10 or more objections send an approval to councillors. The objectors include the Barnet Residents Association and the Monken Hadley and Wood Street Conservation Area Advisory Committee. Their concerns include:

• the home’s repeated expansion, and harm to the conservation area
• overlooking and loss of light for neighbouring houses
• noise, deliveries and parking pressure
• the effect on mature trees and wildlife

Officers say the home provides complex nursing and dementia care, which Barnet is short of. Barnet’s Local Plan records that the borough has lost more than 300 nursing places locally in recent years. The report also notes that the Care Quality Commission rated the home Good in every category in June 2025.

The applicant’s planning statement, quoted in the report, projects 46 staff a day, up from 43 under the extension already approved. It expects visitor numbers to rise in line with the rooms. Council highways officers raised no objection, pointing to the controlled parking zone that runs Monday to Saturday from 8am to 6.30pm.

The recommended conditions include obscured, fixed-shut glass in two first-floor windows facing 1 The Avenue, tree protection during building work, a construction management plan and cycle parking.

What it means for you

• The deadline to speak has passed. Requests to address the committee had to reach the council by 10am on Friday 23 October.
• You can watch. The meeting is open to the public, and the agenda says it may be broadcast.
• Near Langley House: if councillors approve, the play area still cannot open until the noise management plan and acoustic fencing have been approved.
• Near Ravenscroft Park: if approved, building work cannot start until a construction plan and tree protection plan have been signed off.

We will report both decisions after the meeting. Our planning applications page explains how to look up any Barnet application.