Barnet chairman Tony Kleanthous has successfully completed 12 months of contract negotiations with the London Borough of Harrow and reached agreement for the completion of the £11 million development of the 44-acre Prince Edward Playing Field site that runs from Canons Park Underground Station to Camrose Avenue, Edgware.

Barnet FC Holdings will contribute up to £6 million towards the development, which should be up and running by next summer and will provide first team training facilities for manager Paul Fairclough's Barnet squad on an area the size of four football pitches. It is not intended for Barnet FC to play first team games there,although the site will include a new 5,000 capacity stadium for use by Wealdstone FC and another smaller 1,000 capacity stadium for reserve and youth team football. Barnet players have had a nomadic existence in recent seasons training at various venues in Hertfordshire due to the unavailability of suitable sites in the borough of Barnet.

In addition to the use of the main stadium by Wealdstone FC, the two stadiums will also be utilised by Barnet FC Youth, Ladies'and reserve teams. There is also provision on the site for a Centre of Excellence encompassing boys and girls training, six youth training pitches and two full size third generation artificial pitches which will be available for hire by the local community. Training programmes will be organised for all schools throughout Harrow borough and training initiatives for all sections of the Harrow community.

Mr. Kleanthous said "This concludes a process that we embarked upon some eighteen months ago when we first heard of the site's availability. The officers and councillors of the London Borough of Harrow have been extremely supportive and helpful throughout and we are grateful to them for their efforts. This is an exciting challenge and,although we still have a number of hurdles to overcome as we move into the construction phase, we will endeavour to get the site back into use by the start of the 2008 season. The Prince Edward Playing Fields will provide a home and hub for all of Barnet FC's footballing activities and means we will have one of the best football development centres in North London."

Dennis Signy

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