EALING Council has pledged to fight legal action by a residents group over the Warren Farm sports facility.
Hanwell Community Forum has served papers against the council, alleging that it has illegally ‘gifted’ the site to Queens Park Rangers Football Club, which is investing £30million in the project.
The group, which is working with Hanwell law firm DH Law, also wrote to the Mayor of London as it believes Ealing has given QPR permission to build on protected Metropolitan Open Land, the equivalent of a green belt.
Carolyn Brown, chair of the forum said: “Warren Farm’s playing fields, currently open for everyone to use, would be fenced off.
“The council has approved buildings equivalent in height to four to six-storey blocks of flats, in a design more suited to Heathrow Airport than to green space.
“Only a third of the land would remain available for community use. At the moment we have many full size and junior pitches spread across the fields, so football and cricket matches and other sports tournaments can be played in adjacent spaces without interfering with each other.”
Ms Brown stressed that the forum was not anti-football or anti-QPR: “What we actually need is a new sports pavilion with 21st century changing facilities and a social and catering space, to service the existing pitches which are already the best in the Borough. This could be achieved through sports grants without having to give the land away for seven generations.”
Julian Bell, leader of Ealing Council said: “During the toughest economic times in our history, the council is trying to secure long-term investment in high-quality community sporting facilities that will benefit generations of Ealing residents.
“Before this agreement goes ahead, QPR will have to commit to significant investment in Warren Farm and its public facilities, so to suggest it is a gift is nonsense.
“If this legal action results in a judicial review it will put the council’s finances under even more strain, but we will be able to demonstrate that the decision by our planning committee was sound and based on proper planning conditions, and that the council was acting in the best interests of the people of this borough.”
Ms Brown said: “It’s both shocking and disappointing that the community has to involve the legal system in order to get their council to listen.
“We do not want to spend our council taxes in challenging the council, but they are effectively giving away two thirds of this important green space to a commercial organisation, considerably diminishing the existing space used for community sports.
“The vast majority of QPR’s investment would be in their own facilities, for their own use, not in community sports.
“As far as we are aware, Mayor Boris Johnson, as protector of our city’s metropolitan open land, has yet to endorse the council’s planning approval. And the final decision to go to Judicial Review is entirely in the council’s hands.”
