Campaigners crowd fund in bid to go to Court of Appeal over QPR training site

Campaigners are seeking to raise £25,000 through crowdfunding in a bid to go to the Court of Appeal over the proposed siting of a Championship football club’s training facilities on metropolitan open land (MOL).

In March this year Mr Justice Dove rejected the Save Warren Farm Campaign’s legal challenge in the High Court.

The claimant had sought to challenge a decision by the planning committee at Ealing Council to grant planning permission for the development of facilities for Queen’s Park Rangers on a 24.8 hectares at a site known as Warren Farm and owned by the council.

Save Warren Farm Campaign said its lawyers were convinced the decision was flawed and had advised appeal.

Richard Buxton of Richard Buxton Environmental and Public Law, the Campaign’s solicitors, said: “The decision goes against established law and policy. Not only do we consider this case appealable, but if we do not appeal we have a precedent which weakens the protection for Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) and Green Belt nationally.

“In a nutshell, there are two important issues at stake here, in relation to the ‘Very Special Circumstances’ which must be proved in order for MOL to be developed in this way. There are wide implications as I have said for MOL and Green Belt, but also for effective application of London’s development plan policy on which the future of Warren Farm and such open spaces elsewhere in London depends.”

The campaigners are now awaiting the outcome of the application to appeal.

Malcolm Weller of the Save Warren Farm Campaign said: “Ealing leasing out Warren Farm in this way is totally unacceptable. The 61-acre site should stay open to the community for future generations either as a community sports facility or as an environmental education centre.  It is perfectly feasible to achieve this vision without giving the land away to a football club, owned by billionaires, for their own benefit.

“It is absolutely critical that Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Land (a city’s green belt) are protected for future generations. With increasing density of building for a growing population, such sites as this must be protected under law and planning policy to provide space for relaxation, leisure, health and education, and contribute to the city’s ‘green lung’ into the coming decades and beyond.”