Whitewebbs legal team make appeal request as they vow to ‘continue fight’ against Spurs lease

Public Interest Law Centre says verdict dismissing appeal against Enfield Council’s lease of park to Tottenham Hotspur is “terribly sad”, reports James Cracknell

The legal team representing Whitewebbs in its lawsuit against Enfield Council has requested permission to appeal the decision that last week rejected its arguments on the illegality of the park’s 25-year lease to Tottenham Hotspur.

Friends of Whitewebbs Park chair Sean Wilkinson was represented by the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) in the judicial review case at the High Court in February. Following the verdict, PILC released a statement stating that it will “continue to fight” the plans to fence off a portion of the park and build a women’s football academy on it.

Harriet Child, a PILC solicitor, said: “Public trust land was one of the great and radical advances to come out of the public backlash against development encroaching on people’s ability to access open space.

“It’s terribly sad that we’ve lost sight of that as a society. This judgment shows a willingness to sell land to private companies that people fought so hard to protect for the public nearly 100 years ago.

“We have earlier generations to thank for their existence and we need to safeguard them for the future. This has always been a fight led by grassroots campaigners and we cannot – and will not – give up now.”

PILC has also pointed out that despite the judge rejecting all four grounds for appeal against the council – including the claim that it had “no power to dispose of a lease […] “in such a manner that members of the public are unable to obtain access to some part of the park” – the verdict acknowledges that selling off this land will mean a “significant” decrease in public access.

“In my view, it is clear that football academy and training facilities […] are not facilities which, to any significant degree, will be accessible to the public for recreation,” Mr. Justice Mould said in his verdict, which was released on Friday, the 17th.

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“The football training facility will be primarily focused on the development of emerging and elite professional footballers in a highly managed programme operated by a long established and successful Premier League football club.

“The opportunity for members of the public to access that facility for recreation are likely to be very limited and subsidiary to that principal purpose.”

The London branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has also supported Sean’s case against the council and this week reacted to the verdict.
Alice Roberts, head of campaigns at CPRE London, said: “We are naturally very concerned about the implications of this judgement for London’s public parks and we very much hope the courts will allow an appeal.

“We will stand with Enfield activists in their efforts to preserve the park for public usage, no matter what happens.

However, we are also deeply disturbed that a wealthy football team, such as Tottenham Hotspur, believes it is okay to occupy a public park when they have the means to buy land elsewhere.

“We firmly believe that women’s football should be allowed, but this is a wealthy professional football team with the financial wherewithal to purchase land that is not a public park.

“We demand that Spurs take the proper action and promptly withdraw their planning application.”

CPRE also point to a previous example where Queen’s Park Rangers in West London eventually decided against building a training ground on public playing fields, with the area now set to become a nature reserve.

Alice added: “This is what needs to happen in Whitewebbs Park which is already an extraordinarily important habitat which will be destroyed should Spurs continue to pursue its plans.

“The London mayor has set stretching targets to create new habitat in London as part of a national emergency plan to secure nature’s recovery in the face of devastating species decline. The loss of Whitewebbs will make reaching these targets even harder.

“A high profile club like Spurs needs to take it’s social and environmental responsibility a great deal more seriously.”

Sean stated: “The community’s support for Whitewebbs Park has been outstanding and is still going strong. I want to reassure everyone that the battle to save our lovely park is still ongoing.

“Set to bring significant benefits to the local community including the protection and enhancement of the park and woods, further investment in a new on-site café, toilets and other facilities as well as preserving open public access to over 80% of the park for all residents,” an Enfield Council spokesperson stated last week in reference to the lease for Whitewebbs Park.

When contacted for comment, Tottenham Hotspur did not reply.