‘Dark day for parks’: Plans to build Spurs academy on London green space approved | OneFootball

A women’s football academy will be built over public green space and a rewilded former golf course after Enfield council approved controversial plans by Tottenham Hotspur football club.

The council, which handed Spurs a 25-year lease for 53 hectares (130 acres) of Whitewebbs Park in north London, has backed plans for all-weather pitches, floodlights and a “turf academy” on green belt parkland rich in bats, newts and mature trees. In exchange Spurs will pay the council £2m.

Local people, who took the council to the high court to unsuccessfully challenge what they said was an unlawful enclosure of public space, protested outside the planning committee meeting.

Spurs’ planning victory followed Wimbledon’s controversial and successful plans to build 39 new tennis courts on the former Wimbledon Park golf course.

Alice Roberts, of the countryside charity CPRE London, said: “This is a dark day for parks. It’s beyond us why Enfield council is prepared to give away a beautiful public park to a wealthy private company for peanuts. They are supposed to be the custodians of public rights over the park. It has served the residents of Enfield for over 90 years. Now it’s gone for ever.

“We will continue to fight for Whitewebbs. For all other parks in the UK, we now need to take the fight to parliament. That’s because, in a previous round of this long battle, the high court ruled against Whitewebbs campaigners, effectively saying town halls can, with impunity, ignore public rights and treat parks as financial assets.”

Although the Greater London Authority (GLA) and Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, have the power to refuse or “call in” Enfield council’s decision, this is unlikely, with the GLA having last year rubber-stamped Wimbledon’s plans to develop the former golf course in south-west London.

Whitewebbs Park was bought by Enfield council for the public in 1931. Since the 1930s, the grassland section of the park was used as a public golf course, which closed in 2021. Since then, the area has reverted to nature, and is home to 80 species of bird and at least nine species of bat, as well as great crested newts and badgers. It is also thought to be the best site in north London for butterflies, with 29 species including the brown hairstreak, the purple emperor and the white-letter hairstreak.

Of the area of the park leased and managed by Spurs, 66% will remain open to the public, but 18 hectares will be fenced off for new pitches and facilities for the women’s football academy.

Spurs’s plans include converting the former golf club house into a cafe with toilets, dog-washing facilities, a resurfaced car park with EV charging ports and community space.

Ergin Erbil, the Labour leader of Enfield council, said: “We welcome the commitments made by Tottenham Hotspur Football Co Ltd (THFC) to improve the surrounding green space. THFC have committed to planting 2,000 trees, improving biodiversity, repairing footpaths, and improving public access within in the park.

“We believe this project will bring exciting opportunities to Enfield, including job opportunities, apprenticeships, and enhanced sports facilities. We know our borough will benefit from a world-class football training ground for women’s football, one of the fastest-growing sports in the world. We are also pleased to report that the new training grounds will be accessible to youth teams, grassroots football clubs and community groups.”

Local resident and lifelong Spurs fan Pratik Sampat said: “This beautiful, biodiverse area is going to get half-consumed by plastic pitches and fences. They will tidy it up and it will look like any park and it won’t have that raw, natural feel. It’s gone and the benefits in the long term accrue to this mega-corporation with very little benefit accruing to the people of the borough.”

Campaigners are taking legal advice over further challenges. Sam Gracie Tillbrook, chair of Guardians of Whitewebbs, said: “I went through a mental health crisis in lockdown and visiting Whitewebbs Park was one of the only things that allowed me to feel at peace. The loss of such a large part of the park will feel like removing a part of me. The community this park has built around it is something very special, and it brings profound sadness and distress to think that we are so close to losing it. We must save Whitewebbs.”

Campaigner Ed Allnutt said: “Whitewebbs is our public park, part of the green lung of Enfield. Spurs’s plan to privatise it and make it part of a billionaire football empire is daylight robbery.”

A Spurs spokesperson said: “We are delighted that Enfield council’s planning committee has voted to approve our proposals. This is a special site and one we know extremely well, being based next door. Our proposals will secure its future with a green use and ensure it remains an open and inclusive place for local people to enjoy.

“We shall improve local access to nature and habitats, provide new facilities for visitors, community groups and sports clubs, and put Enfield on the map as a champion of the women’s and girls’ game with a best in class academy.”

Header image: [Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian]