Andrew Dismore

The site for the proposed golf club, for which new plans are imminently expected, has been badly flooded.

The proposed golf clubhouse site is now under 4ft of water.

The Silkstream flood relief scheme has worked. But as planned, by protecting the properties downstream in Edgware by using as water containment  areas the farm land on which the golf course is planned to be built, the floods yet again call into question the golf course scheme.

The public footpath has also been dangerously affected as there  is extensive flooding throughout the Bury Farm area.

Andrew Dismore, Labour London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden said:

“The flood defence scheme, for  which as Hendon’s then MP I successfully lobbied the last Labour Government, has worked to protect properties and life in Edgware. The flood defence scheme has operated as intended by using the neighbouring farm land to contain the flood waters.

However, the current major flooding throws into doubt the whole plan for the golf course.

Two key questions are thrown up for the golf course developers.

Firstly, how can they possibly build the club house in a location which is so prone to flooding in this way? With climate change, the extreme weather events we have witnessed across the South East are set to become more common in the decades to come. This must question the suitability and wisdom of the scheme as a whole.  If the developers now try to switch their planned clubhouse location to higher ground, this would  then become even more  obtrusive to  the green belt, and will even more fall foul of the rules designed to protect  the green belt than does the existing  plan.

And secondly and even more importantly, with the volume of landfill they intend  to dump on the farm  to create their golf course – no less than 10 times the volume of the huge wall of the Coliseum in Rome- this will inevitably affect the ability of the land to contain floodwaters, putting pressure on the new flood defences and running the risk that they will not be able to contain the waters as they now do. This will jeopardise the homes and businesses near to the  Silkstream downstream, from Edgware to Burnt Oak, properties that the flood defence scheme is there to protect, in a scheme  that was built at the  cost of millions from the public purse.

This unwelcome golf course development therefore not only wrecks the green belt, it also has serious consequences for flood risk throughout the immediate area. It cannot be allowed to go ahead for these reasons alone, apart from all the other extremely cogent arguments that have been forward against the scheme already.

Once the revised plans are resubmitted, I will immediately approach the Environment Agency to enlist their support to defend their flood defences against the threat posed by this appalling, unwelcome and dangerous  golf course plan.”