Matthew has warmly welcomed the announcement by Amazon that it has purchased the former Pentavia Retail Park site in Mill Hill. This means the proposed construction of 844 rental flats will not go ahead.

Barnet Council had originally refused an application by Meadow Residential for the high-density scheme on the nine acre site between the A1 and the M1 as over-development. Matthew and thousands of local residents also strongly opposed the scheme which was poorly served by public transport, had negligible space for designated car parking and potentially a high level of pollution.

However, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, ‘called in’ the proposal and gave the scheme the green light saying that the site had the “potential to make an important contribution to housing.”

Matthew said: “On the same day that the Mayor of London had to increase the cost of the Congestion Charge to fill the gap in the finances of TfL, we hear the great news that the Pentavia scheme will not proceed - with no thanks to the Labour Mayor.

"Whilst we need new homes, this is not an appropriate site. The proposed scheme would have had a highly detrimental impact on local residents with the consequent increase in pressure on local roads and services - and residents of the development would have been subjected to a questionable quality of life.

"Ironically, the scheme would have contravened the Mayor’s own Air Quality Strategy. But just like the decision to increase the Congestion Charge to balance the Tube budget, Khan’s decisions are taken to address problems elsewhere. By ignoring the air quality strategy he would then have claimed to have assisted in the construction of low cost housing - but would have created a sink estate in the process.

"The purchase by Amazon is good news for local people and good news for the local economy - but the sooner the tenure of Sadiq Khan as London Mayor ends, the better it will be for all Londoners.”