Ealing Residents Crowdfunding to Take Council to Second Judicial Review

LONDON, November 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Ealing residents are mounting a last challenge to save Warren Farm School Sports Centre for the community, and are crowdfunding to raise money to take the Council to final Judicial Review https://www.crowdjustice.org/case/save-warren-farm/

"We are confident that we can raise this money through the power of local people and crowdfunding, and have already briefed our legal team to initiate proceedings," said Malcolm Weller of the Save Warren Farm Campaign.  "Working together, we have stopped this for four years, thanks to people who have already donated to this cause.  Ealing is wrong to give away public land for private gain, and we are taking them to Judicial Review to prove this," he continued.

This is what residents are fighting:

• Ealing Council plans to lease 61 acres of publicly-owned community sports fields for 200 years at no rent to a privately owned company
• The Council has granted planning permission to QPR football club, owned by billionaires, to build a Training and Academy facility on the site for the benefit of their own shareholders
• Current plans increase the built footprint on this Metropolitan Open Land (London's Green Belt) by over 300%, and wipe out a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation
• QPR would level the land with 180,000 cubic metres of landfill through a 'muck away' scheme.  This amounts to 150 trucks per day thundering through narrow roads, to and from the site, five days a week, for eight months.  QPR would make around £4 million from this scheme

"This is London's open green space and Ealing Council should not be enabling this large development, so damaging to the landscape. Leasing the land rent-free to a private company for 200 years is astonishing," said Alice Roberts of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England.  "The alternative vision is to build a modest new community pavilion to service all the pitches for schools and sporting clubs, and keep the entire site for community use, thus protecting London's green space.  This is feasible, but we have to stop the Council from giving away public land to private owners first."

Website: http://www.savewarrenfarm.com
#WarrenFarm