Worrying Whitewebbs development gets green light

The Mayor will not oppose Enfield Council’s decision to allow Tottenham Hotspur’s plans to turn a historic former golf course into a women’s football academy, amid threats to more green spaces

Despite a lengthy campaign by the Guardians of Whitewebbs it looks like the development on Whitewebbs Park in Enfield, North London will go ahead. CPRE London has supported this campaign and others to protect popular green spaces being sold off to professional clubs.

This decision will see popular Green Belt parkland rich in bats, newts and mature trees replaced with a 10-pitch training centre. According to the campaigners, the plans will result in the loss of around 40 acres of grassland, the felling of 207 trees and a net total of at least 9000 tonnes of carbon emissions.

For the public

The 240-acre park, comprising grassland and ancient woodland, was bought by Enfield Council in 1931 for the public. But the golf course area, which has been rewilded in recent years, is now being leased to Tottenham Hotspur. An unpopular decision given the club’s existing 17-pitch training centre on adjacent Green Belt.

The planning application was approved by the Enfield Council Planning Committee in February in the face of much opposition. But Guardians of Whitewebbs persisted, hoping the Mayor might intervene to stop the proposals. Many travelled to protest outside City Hall on 14th July, prior to the disappointing decision. Nevertheless, the group remains resolute and determined to explore all avenues for safeguarding the park for all, so watch this space.

Worrying developments

In a similar application, the All England Lawn Tennis Club have just won a judicial review, giving them approval to develop a huge area of green space at Wimbledon Park. These worrying developments come at a time when we are losing so much publicly accessible open space, with an ever growing population and the loom of climate change and species decline.

“The problem is London councils are broke and this is impacting London’s parks and green spaces,” Alice Roberts, Head of Campaigns at CPRE London says. “Councils are selling parks, saying they make a ‘loss’ – like here at Whitewebbs – renting them out for increasingly big commercial events or hiking up rents for community groups.

“The real question is – what kind of a city do we want? One with education, nature reserves, grass roots football clubs and city farms? Or should councils just get the highest possible rent to prop up their finances under pressure from housing homeless families and funding adult social care?

“We help groups campaign to stay on the land and continue to operate, on the basis that they all provide a vital public amenity, on what is invariably protected land which cannot be used for housing or other development anyway.”

Read more about our campaign to protect these green spaces, here

Follow Guardians of Whitewebbs continued campaign, here