Local MP, Munira Wilson, gave an impassioned speech emphasising the importance of retaining playing fields for community use rather than allowing them to be land banked by developers.
Watch Here: Udney park got another mention in the Houses of Parliament earlier this week
Munira is seeking amendments to remove Hope Value via the Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. This Bill is great as it introduces a special Sporting ACV category for playing field that is permanent (one a playing field always a playing field). This Bill also shifts the current ACV Right to Bid to a Right to Buy.
All of this has specific relevance to Udney Park playing fields which remain in the ownership of Leisure Focus, an opaque Chinese owned company based in the British Virgin Islands. Community clubs have been denied access to these fields for over a decade apart from floodlight training by Teddington RFC.
If the legislation is successful there will hopefully be a Right to Buy to end the impasse. A local charity, Udney Park Community Fields Foundation, has already made a substantial bid to buy the fields but cannot match the value that Leisure Focus seek to sell at, which is set at a multiple of playing field value.
