The BBC Springwatch presenter recently criticised Tottenham Hotspur for wanting to build its women’s training academy on the park, reports James Cracknell
The leading campaigner against Tottenham Hotspur’s plans to build a women’s football academy on Whitewebbs Park says he remains hopeful of launching a legal appeal against it – while welcoming recent support from Chris Packham.
Earlier this year Friends of Whitewebbs Park chair Sean Wilkinson led an unsuccessful judicial review against Enfield Council’s decision to lease more than half of the park’s area to the Premier League club, which plans to fence off its north-east corner for use by its women’s and girls’ teams, but his lawyers are currently waiting to hear whether a request for a review of the case via the Court of Appeal will be accepted.
In the meantime, Springwatch presenter and wildlife campaigner Chris Packham has waded into the debate around the future of Whitewebbs – blasting Spurs for what he says are “nonsensical” plans.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror earlier this month, Packham said: “There’ll be no football on a dead planet […] what we are up against is the bloated monster that is the Premier League with its unfortunate economic might. This is another case of David versus Goliath.”
An independent ecological survey conducted last year by chartered biologist Denis Vickers concluded that Whitewebbs was “rich in invertebrates” and was home to eleven species of bats, eight species of butterfly included on the London priority list, was used as a hunting ground by kestrels, and had potential to become a site of importance for nature conservation (Sinc) if properly managed – but that this potential would not be fulfilled with the current plans from Tottenham Hotspur.
The review concluded: “The development of a fenced and significantly relandscaped football training centre is seen as inappropriate and contrary to preserving this exceptional landscape. An aesthetically pleasing landscape is a criterion in Sinc selection and designation.”
In his interview, Packham continued: “We are going to lose so much valuable space for what are essentially football pitches. We are losing that acid rich grassland to a small group of people behind fences who kick a ball around. It’s absolutely nonsensical.
“This is at a time where we are conscious of the fact we need to protect every last square of greenery, particularly in cities where it has multiple values.
“It’s not just about nature conservation, it’s about people’s mental health and access to nature for people who are living in a crowded urban environment. It’s absolutely bonkers and Spurs are totally disconnected from reality.”
Sean has welcomed the comments from Packham and the higher profile it gives to the Save Whitewebbs campaign. Last month, a further £10,000 was raised towards the cost of the appeal against the judicial review verdict, which the Court of Appeal is currently considering.
He told the Dispatch: “We still think we have a strong case and it is a very important point of law which is significant not just for Whitewebbs but all the other open spaces in London.
“That is why we must keep fighting it, and why Chris Packham and CPRE and our solicitors are fighting it.”
Tottenham Hotspur formally submitted its plans for Whitewebbs in April, with the “regionally significant” women’s training academy on the northern half of the former golf course set to take up 18% of the total park area, while an area of “historic parkland” would be created on the southern half. The pitches would be surrounded by a two-metre high fence and natural hedging.
While two of the pitches would have floodlights, the plans state the lights would be switched on for a maximum of twelve hours per week, and while 121 trees would be felled, an additional 3,000 would be planted alongside the creation of “wildflower meadows, bat and bird boxes, and a new biodiversity corridor”.
The 25-year park lease to Spurs, which is worth £2m to the council, will only go ahead if the plans win permission, with a decision expected later this year. The football club was selected by the council as the preferred bidder to take on the lease after a public procurement process conducted in 2019 and 2020, with the Tottenham Hotspur bid said to meet the council’s ambition to “secure the future of the site” because of its “aspirations for enhanced access to nature and improved public facilities”.
Tottenham Hotspur and the council both declined to comment in response to this story.
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