Barnet FC has accused Underhill Conservatives of treating its proposal to build a new stadium as "a vote-catching exercise for the local elections".
The club claims there are a number of inaccuracies in a poster advertising a meeting by Sir Sydney Chapman, headed 'No to building on the Green Belt'. The poster says the new stadium will be built in 15 acres of Green Belt while the club maintains it is only seven acres.
The poster also says some of the present stands at Underhill will be refurbished or rebuilt. The club says it is proposing to demolish all the stands apart from the main one.
Barnet FC chairman Tony Kleanthous said: "I am sure Sir Sydney, as an honourable gentleman, would not wish to use distorted facts so that some people can use the issue to jump on a political bandwagon.
"This is a planning issue with the future of the football club at stake and not a vote-catching exercise for the local elections."
Sir Sydney said that he had not seen the leaflet concerned but insisted he could not support the club's application due to its intrusion into the Green Belt. He said: "I supported the chairman when he said the only site was at Hendon Football Club and then I stretched my principles as far as I could on Copthall. I was even prepared to support him if it [the current development] was a little bit of the Green Belt.
"But to take acres and keep the existing stadium is just ridiculous."
- Sir Sydney's Green Belt meeting will take placeon Friday at Queen Elizabeth's School, Queen's Road, at 8pm.
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