Parks, Sports Grounds, Countryside threatened.

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Oakfields – Sport England, Campaign to save our sports grounds

Oakfields has been under threat since 2017. Saved at that time by the planning inspector selecting the Billet Road site soon to be developed by Bellway Homes. In 2024 the council intended to lease the sports ground to West Ham which was losing training fields to housing and is still in limbo.

CPRE – Cashing in on London’s Parks and Countryside

“Staggeringly, ten percent of public land in Britain has been lost since 1979.* Whitewebbs Park in Enfield is one of the public parks currently under threat. There a 450 year-old oak tree was brutally butchered and Spurs’ plans to develop the park involve cutting down 207 trees, including veteran and mature trees, and taking over most of the park for
their elite private use.
It is absolutely essential for us to protect these trees and people’s access to nature. Campaign to Protect Rural England London is assisting the fight to save Whitewebbs and other sites currently under threat and it is clear to me that it is more important than ever to protect our parks
and green spaces, before it’s too late.”
Dame Judi Dench.

The CPRE list full details of sites lost since their last report and threats to Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) arising from Local Plan Reviews. MOL is high quality open spaces with the same protection as Green Belt specifically to be protected as an area of landscape, recreation, nature conservation or scientific interest.

Cashing-in-on-Londons-Parks-and-CountrysideDownload

Among the list are some from our local areas:

  • Barkingside Sports Ground
  • Oakfields Sport Ground
  • Leigh Road Sports Ground adjacent to River Roding (Playing fields, Nature Reserve, SINC, Valuable habitat)
  • Crowlands Heath Golf Course (Barking and Dagenham / Havering) SINC / MOL