QPR say they will continue the battle to build a new training ground at Warren Farm after confirming that objectors have submitted a Supreme Court appeal in another attempt to scupper the project.
West London Sport earlier revealed that an appeal had been lodged against recent Court of Appeal judicial review which found in favour of Ealing Council’s original decision to grant planning permission.
In response, QPR co-owner Tony Fernandes insisted on Twitter that the club “won’t give up” in the ongoing legal dispute over the future of the Southall site.
Rangers have 14 days to lodge an objection to their opponents’ latest appeal and prevent the issue being referred to the Supreme Court.
QPR chief executive Lee Hoos told the club website: “This appeal and the subsequent delay it will cause is naturally very disappointing news.
“However, it does not alter our determination and absolute focus to succeed in building a new training ground for the club as well as fantastic new facilities for the local community.
“Along with Ealing Council we will be objecting to the appeal and, like all previous decisions in this process, are confident of a decision in our favour.
“We hope the process will be relatively quick but cannot confirm at this stage just how long this latest appeal will delay us.”
It comes more than six years after West London Sport first revealed that QPR would look to build training base at the site in Southall.
And it is more than three-and-a-half years since West London Sport revealed Rangers had scaled down their plans for the site, having considered ditching the project altogether.
This post was last modified on 25/04/2018
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To Simon Oscar or whoever you are
I'm a QPR fan, Ealing resident and my son played football on Warren Farm a few years ago now. Your slightly ranting article ignores the role of Ealing's Labour council who are the ones ''giving'' way the facility as you put it. It's been an ignored sports field for years now and will not get any better without investment which no council of any colour will put in. You seem to suggest that cricket will no longer be played there if it's developed, who has told the cricket teams that that will happen? QPR are like a number of clubs who rely on wealthy owners to fund them as do rugby clubs too. Can you tell us where the £4m profit is going to come from as it will take more than that to erect the new buildings and make the pitches playable? Can I also ask if you have any connections with any football club?
I get fed up from hearing about this so called nebulous benefit to the community, anyone who actually takes the time to look at this deal in detail and not just regurgitate the “hype”, will see there is no massive potential for the whole community. That statement is completely unfounded. Agreed there will be some community offering for a few hours a week for those that like football to play, but no where has this been confirmed, nor at what cost to each group/child to use. What we do know is that this project addresses none of the needs of local elderly, those with mental health issues, young mothers with children, and the many people who are not interested in Football who are gaining nothing and loosing a much cherished open space. Then you need to consider those that enjoyed cricket, the minority groups such as, an array of schools and club sports; horse riding; model air plane flying; informal leisure activities; large events; inter school championships such as those run by APNA and the Tamil School Sports Association. That have all been told they will no longer be able to use the land once QPR take hold of it. So it is very disingenuous to say this will benefit the whole community because it won’t.
Warren Farm, is daily a destination for visitors, enjoying the adjacent Grand Union Canal, the impressive Hanwell Flight of Locks, the local pubs, and wandering across the lock into Jubilee Meadows and onto Warren Farm. Similarly from Windmill Lane, on the Norwood Green and Southall side of the site, many people access the land for recreation and relaxation, or even commute to work daily across the established footpaths on Warren Farm. It is open space where people simply enjoy nature, and relax, used by 100's of people who enjoy walking, being out in the open air and being in peaceful nature, it is they who are inconsolable at losing an irreplaceable asset, when QPR fence them out.
Warren Farm is a rare piece of pristine Metropolitan Open Land. This Spring it has been filled with meadow flowers, and wildlife, and contains a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) along the Windmill Lane side - which will be destroyed in this new plan.
Only a QPR supporter who has never been any where near the land or talked to the people who use and value it, could so blithely accuse them of being selfish. It’s their land not QPR’s to do what they want with and they have every right to fight to stop it, with 1000’s who signed petition and raised 1000’s of pounds to save it. Why should locals give up a valued much loved resource of open land to QPR for nothing for 200 years so they can mortgage against it to prop up their financially ailing Limited company? And why should they welcome QPR when it breeches its own games rules with impunity, and clearly doesn’t fight fair. It is QPR that needs to get a life and stop forcing locals to give away something they value for nothing that is the truest definition of selfish. Why should locals having lost their land then have to suffer 8 months of living next to a rubble landfill site, receiving “unknown” rubble in 1 truck movement every 4 minutes for 8 months, while the air that they breath will be pumped full of dust suppressant sprays in an attempt to stop the airborne detritus/dust clouds from descending on their allotments, their local school, hospital and homes, just to allow QPR to receive the approx £4million and not one penny back to improve the lives of those that have lost the right to use the land they love. That is beyond selfish. Why should they have to live next to that for 8months and then a building site for another year before any peace returns to their homes. Locals have a life and they enjoy spending much of it at Warren Farm, they are not trying to stop something good happening in the area, but stop something bad, something that will only benefit a few children of wealthy parents who can afford to send their children to the academy and some local children who will have to pay to use the space when and at a cost, QPR will set. The only people who will benefit is QPR who will make money from receiving the landfill, and take land away from public use for free, fence it off, destroying the current peace and quite with pollution, trucks, noise pollution, 700 cars parking for show games, and floodlighting until 11pm at night. And if you still can't understand why people are fighting for it, lets put it in simple terms, the land is an asset of natural beauty to those that live near it, and for generations of people who have used it freely for leisure. If the same group marched into Lou Hoos office and said we are going to take your 2 best players for 200 years, for nothing, and then we are going to spray you with dust suppressant sprays for 8 months, the whole of QPR would be in uproar, so what is so hard for selfish football obsessed people to understand. Locals don’t want QPR they want their land, and their land doesn’t need anything on it, or done to it, or fenced off to those that love and appreciate it just the way it is and daily take the benefit of it. It is public land, that belongs to the public, not QPR, they have no right fencing people off it. So here is the message from the locals, they are not giving up on saving it #Ourland. QPR will have to rip it from their hands, and the money is already rolling in for the legal battle from 100’s of residents who have woken up to the corruption that is at hand here, and they are not going to just roll over, because there is no benefit for the community to lose something that can not be replaced. The right to roam and enjoy open nature. QPR should focus on saving their company and spending their money on fighting the Fair Play rule fine. It is QPR and its’ supporters that are selfish, and need to be reminded it’s just a game, where by Warren Farm is about people, their homes, health and quality of life, a life they most definitely have and intend to fight for.
Have any Bees fans got an idea who is funding the SWF campaign? It will happen eventually and the rubbish pitches that my son played on will be there for both west London's finest and the locals alike.
Good news that QPR are not going to give up on this project, I've only seen pictures of the site but the potential it has for the whole community is massive, all you people against it need to get a life, you are trying to stop something good happening to the area with your selfish attitudes. It will beneficial for everyone in the area, not just for QPR. Come on you Rd.