Businesses voice concerns over new White Hart Lane station

Traders on the west side of Tottenham High Road have said that the plan to move White Hart Lane station further up the road deprives their shops of match-day footfall.

The move is part of the wider regeneration project surrounding the building of the new Spurs stadium in Tottenham, which is set to have a walkway connecting it directly with the newly located station.

Patricia Pearcy, vice-chairman of the Tottenham Business Group, said moving the station had always been a “non-negotiable” part of the redevelopment, despite resistance from local business owners.

She said: “When the regeneration scheme was announced we all thought it was wonderful. We’d needed extra footfall for years, and then we had riots.

"But moving the station means that those extra customers funnelled straight through the walkway, so that the council and Spurs maintain control of the extra retail traffic.

"It deprives the businesses who are allowed to remain on the High Road of that extra business.
The other thing is that it will bring thousands of people all out into this one spot.

"What’s going to happen when they all immediately try to cross the road? Is the traffic going to be stopped for them all?

She added that the group were all keen to see White Hart Lane station improved in order to transport Spurs fans, but that they wanted it to remain in its current location.

“The station has been in White Hart Lane for decades and the footfall had never been a problem. The crowd dissipated as it walked along the High Street.

“Originally they were going to just remodel the station and keep it where it is now. Local people have been saying, ‘yes, of course, remodel it and make it bigger and better, but leave it where it is’.

“Increased footfall on the High Road is a good thing, but it has to be a good thing for the businesses and the community that is already here.

“We don’t want that community moved out and not to benefit from the regeneration.”