A bad week for London parks and green spaces

This week we’ve seen a number of really worrying developments in relation to threats to green spaces in London.

Gunnersbury Park. An application has been submitted to run commercial events which would take over the park for a totally unreasonable amount of time each year. Almost unbelievably, the application is for ten years. The local group is asking for help in raising objections to this application by 18 December 2025. You can find all the details here.

West Ham Park. In a last minute modification to their Local Plan, Newham changed their stance on the corner of West Ham Park which local residents had understood would be preserved for much-needed green ‘growing’ space. City of London wants to build on the site but, to date, the council has said it does not support losing the site to development. With this last minute change, residents attended the Planning hearings to point out facts and commitments which are not being taken into account in making this change. We continue to support with advice on planning issues, while also giving support and encouragement.

Trinity Road Park, Old Actonians sports ground, and an allotment, in Ealing. The council is removing Metropolitan Open Land and Green Belt protection from a number of sites including these. This is clearly inconsistent with other policies in their Draft Local Plan, where they say they will only remove protections for sites being developed, and how they wish to improve access to green spaces. Notwithstanding these inconsistencies, it is extremely worrying the council wants to remove the protections from these important local parks. This week we attended the Local Plan hearings – the ‘examination in public’ to point to inconsistencies and concerns. We hope the Planning Inspector doesn’t approve the plans with these inconsistencies and directs the council to revise retain protections.

We should remember however, that following a major campaign led by CPRE London and local groups two years ago, the council’s plans to remove designations from a large number of spaces, were dropped. We remain very worried about their approach in relation to these few sites which they still want to remove the designation from.

Biodiversity Net Loss in Ealing. Meanwhile the Homebuilders Federation representative appeared at the Ealing hearing saying they were delighted that the council had dropped it’s Biodiversity Net Gain requirement from 20% to 10%. To our mind, this perfectly reflected the Government’s entirely un-evidenced proclamations that nature requirements are holding up development. Of course the drop in ‘starts’ and ‘completions’ (of new homes being built) in London is a result of the high cost of land, which is now so high housebuilders can’t make a profit. That is a result of successive government’s failure to control land prices; and to fuel house prices with promoting access to cheap credit and providing public subsidies for house buying (under the Right to Buy and Help to Buy schemes). It has absolutely nothing to do with nature designations. This is ‘smoke and mirrors’. Read more about why building houses can’t solve the housing crisis.

Greendale Park in Southwark. The council confirmed planning permission for a stadium for Dulwich Hamlet Football Club to be built on the park. This is a long-standing battle, wherein the club’s existing stadium was sold to a developer and a deal was done whereby the football club would be able to build a stadium on the park, while the old stadium would be developed for flats. It made us all extremely angry that both Southwark Council and the London Mayor Sadiq Khan gave permission for this protected site to be developed. We have fought hard alongside local residents and continue to fight. This is a classic example of how professional sports are threatening space for recreational sports in London. The council has promised the new facility will be made available to the community but of course there is a chasm of difference between turn-up-and-play facilities in a park and a book-and-pay facility which would preclude much community use.

New site for Leyton Orient FC in Waltham Forest. It’s no secret that the club is working with the council to find a new site and to develop proposals for a bigger stadium. While we don’t yet know which sites are under consideration, there is a lot of protected land in the borough and we are very concerned they may be looking to build on protected green land and/or land used for recreation or recreational sports. We are working with a local group, who submitted a request for information about sites being considered. However, the council’s reply gave further cause for concern:

• “At this early stage in the process, the Council and Football Club are entitled to a safe space to prepare proposals. Disclosure of incomplete and out of date information would impinge on that safe space, potentially causing delays and difficulties in delivering the project. Once complete, information will be submitted as part of a planning application, which will be subject to public consultation.” …… “The public interest in providing the information has been carefully weighed against any prejudice to the public interest that might arise from withholding the information; in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.” 

We are extremely concerned this weighs heavily in favour of the developer and does in fact prejudice the public’s rights. Will this (as we have seen many times before) eventually come to the Planning Committee as a ‘done deal’? Of course, it remains possible the chosen site is not green space but we are concerned and will continue to push for information at this stage.