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How the proposed pavilion will look - and inset, the fenced off area |
Royal Parks pitches’ plan is all about cash
The scheme to build football pitches in Regent’s Park is an act of greed and vandalism, writes Judy Hillman
DEVELOPERS justify even the most outrageous schemes with fine words and seductive images. But fundamentally most proposals, even if argued in terms of community benefit, will almost always be about money.
So perhaps we should not be so surprised that the Royal Parks has decided that 10 profitable artificial five-a-side football pitches, with presumably an even more profitable bar, should replace a beautiful and mysterious corner of mature trees and grassland in Regent’s Park.
More than 60 trees will be destroyed, along with a wildlife habitat. So will the golf and tennis school, a popular facility for more than 90 years.
But the Royal Parks will make money. So presumably will Goals Soccer Centres plc, their partners in this particular act of crass vandalism, which is currently lodged as a planning application with Westminster City Council.
The Royal Parks is the government agency, which manages Regent’s Park and other Royal parks including Hyde, Richmond and Greenwich, on behalf of Tessa Jowell’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
How could this organisation be so blind as to the main role and purpose of parks as havens of peace and green tranquillity to offset the busyness of city life? It is not its job to bulldoze trees and flowers for a hard-edged urban development.
For those who do not know Regent’s Park well, the proposed development site lies west of the Zoo’s Mappin Terraces and the golf and tennis school on the Outer Circle and east of the American ambassador’s residence.
The golf and tennis school would be closed, which has quite naturally created a furore among its very many regular adherents.
As planning gain, which is a polite and legal form of development bribery, the local running track would be upgraded.
Most importantly, the new venture would be built on a virgin park site three times the size of the golf and tennis school.
In other words, it does not even pretend to be a straight land swap. With the 10 caged pitches and a large pavilion and changing rooms, it annexes a large area of parkland, almost lush unspoilt countryside and rare in the city.
Not that you can go there at present. The powers that be have already fenced it in.
Normally this corner is simply enjoyed by individual visitors to the park who seek something more natural than mown grass, lakeside paths and the beautiful planting – or sport.
It is also a well-known retreat and wildlife habitat including tawny owls.
Now the Royal Parks and Goals Soccer Centres plan to destroy this oasis. No matter that it is part of the grade I park on English Heritage’s register and metropolitan open space with its legal presumption against development.
Last year, both local MPs, Frank Dobson and Karen Buck (from North Westminster) reported that they had received more letters opposing the proposed five-a-side centre than on any other issue in their careers – including Iraq.
Regent’s Park is a great park, which the capital city, with its swelling population, desperately needs to nurture for people generally.
The proposed urban development could sit comfortably in a retail or business park, underneath a viaduct or even on top of an office block.
The effective sale and development of additional parkland for an exclusive use would set a dangerous precedent which, whatever the financial pressures on the Royal Parks, London and Londoners quite simply cannot afford.
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