Thousands of Mill Hill residents are campaigning to save their local Wyevale garden centre.
The Mill Hill Garden Centre in Daws Lane could be closed to make way for a Jewish free school on the site if planning permission is granted by Barnet Council.

However, a local action group has collected 3,100 signatures against the application, with a further 2,500 sending rejection letters. The application is due to be heard at Hendon Town Hall on Wednesday.

"There has been a massive campaign to relocate the school elsewhere," explains local resident Zoë Samuelson. "The residents are absolutely fine with the principle of having a free school in the area but totally against the garden centre being removed.

"It's a garden centre that's widely used by elderly disabled residents, including adults with learning disabilities. It also employs somebody with learning disabilities who trained in further education in horticulture, and it has 500,000 visitors a year."

She adds: "There's a lot of people who are very passionate about it, incredibly so. It's a top-performing centre for the Garden Centre Group. It's such a superb place. It would be such a terrible, terrible shame if it's lost to the community."

As well as selling plants, gardening products and garden furniture, Mill Hill Garden Centre includes a restaurant, aquatics centre and giftware department.