Group wins permission for challenge to plans for site next to football club training ground, saying it has become precious urban meadow

Activists involved in a lengthy planning dispute have won permission to take the London Borough of Ealing to judicial review.

A Crowd Justice page run by Hanwell Nature has raised £28,451 towards its £35,000 target for legal costs.

The group said it sought to protect 61 acres of rare urban biodiversity from a development proposed by Queen’s Park Rangers Football Club adjacent to its training ground.

Planning permission was given after another group failed in a Court of Appeal challenge to Ealing’s consent in 2018.

Hanwell Nature said Mrs Justice Elizabeth Laing decided its case against Ealing had sufficient merit for a judicial review of the council’s decision not to require an environmental impact assessment of the project.

The group said that since Ealing stopped maintaining the land six years ago as sports pitches, “nature has done what it does best and totally rewilded the site into a precious urban meadow within the Brent River Park”.

A council spokesperson said: "We are aware of the recent judicial review application decision and are confident that the decisions we have made are robust and will stand up to court scrutiny at a full hearing."

Mark Smulian