Council and football club defeat bid for footpaths across planned training ground

Queens Park Rangers Football Club and the London Borough of Ealing have seen off a bid by campaigners to have two routes designated as public footpaths across land on which the club intends to build a training centre.

The land at Warren Farm, Southall, part of the borough, has been the subject of a lengthy battle with objectors from Hanwell Community Forum. 

Ealing has supported the club over the matter and appeals over designating the footpaths have now been dismissed.

Landmark Chambers, which represented the club, said the Court of Appeal was now due in December to consider a judicial review challenge to planning permission for the ground.

In his ruling, planning inspector Barney Grimshaw said: “In my view the documentary evidence that is available does not indicate whether public footpaths subsist over the claimed routes.”

He said it was not disputed that both footpaths had been used by the public for more than 20 years but access to both required walkers to pass through “forcibly made holes” in a gate or fence.

“No reasonable person would conclude that by placing a locked gate across a route the landowner was displaying an intention to dedicate it as a public right of way,” Mr Grimshaw said.

A footpath accessible only through a hole forced in a fence could also not be said to be in use “as of right”, he added.

Douglas Edwards QC of Francis Taylor Building acted for Ealing as surveying authority and Philip Petchey from the same set appeared for the council as landowner.

Mark Smulian