Enfield Council has been criticised for a potential U-turn if it allows a commercial development on a ‘busy’ town-centre car park.

Genotin Road car park was deemed the town’s “most well-used car park” in the council’s Enfield town centre draft framework masterplan, which was published in July 2017.

But just five months later, the council revealed it was “paving the way” for multinational firm Metaswitch to build a new headquarters in Enfield on the site of the car park.

Dickie Smart, who lives on Ridge Crest, Gordon Hill, said cutting the number of parking spaces in the town would be bad for small businesses.

He said: “You only have to drive through a few times to see the number of boarded-up shops. It is not the shopping centre it used to be.

“Taking away a significant ground level car park, bearing in mind others that have gone before, means you are partly deterring people from coming to the town.

“I really understand there is a fine line between the council saying it can’t do something and the company upping sticks.

“But it is curious the council has produced a document saying ‘this is a critical car park’. It would be interesting to understand why they can say now it is not a busy car park.”

Metaswitch is a communications software company with offices across the US, the UK, the Middle-East, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.

It has been based in Enfield since it was founded in 1981, and currently operates from three buildings near Enfield Chase train station

The move to a new building would enable the firm to expand its workforce beyond the 348 people it already employs in the borough.

An Enfield Council spokesperson said: “Metaswitch is currently consulting on its plans to build a new headquarters in Enfield Town ahead of submitting a planning application to Enfield Council.

“As part of this process residents and town centre users will have the opportunity to have their say on those plans, and all of their comments will be considered before our planning committee makes a decision on the scheme.”