QPR face delay over new sports complex
A group of Hanwell residents have challenged Ealing Council over plans for a new training ground for QPR.
The club were hoping to develop a £30million sports complex at the 60-acre Warren Farm site on Windmill Lane in Southall after being given the go-ahead by Ealing Council.
However, Hanwell Community Forum (HCF) has now served legal papers accusing the council of “relegating residents’ green spaces”.
Carolyn Brown Chair of HCF said: “We are clearly neither anti-football nor anti QPR, but what we actually need is a new sports pavilion with 21st century changing facilities and a social/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.''
'' 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.''
QPR - who were hoping to start work on the site - now face a delay pending the outcome of legal proceedings. They have declined to comment on the news.
Ealing council leader Julian Bell 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.''
13th June 2013
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