Opposing Use of Warren Farm for activities that prevent free and open access

There is a paper petition supporting this online petition which needs to be added to the total above: paper signatures as at 10 August 2015 = 346.

Warren Farm is an open area of 24.8 hectares (61 acres) between Olde Hanwell and Windmill Lane in the London Borough of Ealing, West London (https://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=UB2+4NE). It is protected as Metropolitan Open Land, a status that puts it on a par with Green Belt land. It is currently open to the public for a wide range of organised and informal activities. Ealing Council is proposing to remove free public access to the whole site and to reduce the existing amount of outdoor space available to community by two thirds.

Ealing Council plans to dispose this commercially valuable, publicly owned land which is Warren Farm Playing Fields via a 200 year lease, to a commercial organisation, at a peppercorn (ie negligible) rent. This will mean that two thirds of the space will be lost for seven generations, with the remaining third being controlled by an unelected commercial organisation. We can only speculate as to what will happen to this land at the end of 200 years, but by present day standards it is unlikely that the land built upon would ever come back as green space. The disposal of Warren Farm Sports grounds by Ealing Council would be a great loss to the people of Ealing.

This petition believes the proposal has been poorly thought through, poorly consulted with relevant communities and provides negligible benefit to the community.

You can help by donating to our legal challenge to quash the planning permission at; https://www.crowdjustice.org/case/save-warren-farm/

The plans approved by Ealing’s Planning Committee can be seen at; Planning Reference No; P/2012/5124; http://www.pam.ealing.gov.uk/portal/servlets/ApplicationSearchServlet?PKID=156419

More information on the proposals can be found at; http://www.savewarrenfarm.com/

The image, top-right, is an artist's impression of the massive developments planned.

The Council’s approved plans are ill thought out, provide little benefit to the community whilst taking away a great deal;

• Public open space will be lost where local residents can easily walk, relax and play games as they have previously done for generations.
• The community area will only be 1/3 of what it was, an loss of 2/3 of the existing sports grounds.
• The community will lose all 11 full-sized football pitches to be replaced with only small pitches for the local league clubs to play on.
• The new cricket pitches will be overlapped by the football pitches making concurrent sporting fixtures impossible.
• All ten existing cricket nets will be lost.
• All ten existing Netball courts will be lost.
• All three Shot Put pits will be lost.
• All six Long Jump tracks will be lost.
• Public open space will be lost where local residents can easily walk, relax and play games as they have previously done for generations.
• Community benefits have been described as ‘various’ but still remain undefined.
• Ealing Council are gaining £0 in rental income.
• Insufficient space will remain for the flying club to train new members.
• Insufficient space will remain for many community events previously held on the grounds such as the recent football tournaments where 20 schools participated and the Tamil Sports Association Tournaments where recently seven football matches, two cricket matches and netball matches were played concurrently.
• The Pride and Joy child nursery has had to move it premises.
• Any increase in noise, light pollution or human activity will adversely affect the human population and the local wildlife including owls, woodpeckers and pipistrelle bats.

The disposal of Warren Farm Sports grounds by Ealing Council will be a great loss to the people of Ealing and those of Hanwell particularly.

The principle of disposing of protected Metropolitan Open Land is bad for London’s future and for its communities.

Please sign this petition to try to prevent its loss and rejuvenate it to the glorious public sports ground it once was.