Further news has emerged in the Times about whether Mr Wu is a fit custodian for Udney Park. Mr Wu is the owner of Leisure Focus who purchased Udney Park from Quantum, after a lengthy sales campaign by the estate agents, Savills. Since then, the fields have remained out of use apart from floodlight rugby training by Teddington RFC. Leisure Focus are an opaque business based in the British Virgin Islands and until now not much had been known about the company or Mr Wu. That has now changed with the news below.
The Udney Park Community Fields Foundation have taken a keen interest in the status of Mr Wu due to his ownership of important community playing fields in the London Borough of Richmond on Thames. He purchased these fields via a company registered in the British Virgin Islands called Leisure Focus.
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.
I thought that I ought to update everyone as the latest moratorium period under the ACV is about to expire. At this point Mr Wu can market the site again to commercial bidders. Before the moratorium period he attempted to sell the site over a twelve-month period and attracted an offer from a single developer called Mr Williams. This bid later evaporated. No doubt Mr Wu hopes for more meaningful interest the next time around.
