The Proposal
The Background
In August 2025 Buckinghamshire Council and Wycombe Wanderers Football Club announced a "partnership" over the future of 210 acres of land between the villages of Stoke Poges and Farnham Royal. The picture indicates the location of said land. It shows that most of the land is charity land. The council is trustee. The Council also asserts ownership of the "Blue Parcel". The land is used for various types of sport: football, rugby, baseball/softball, and golf. The 18 hole golf course has existed since 1982 and stretches over both charity land and the Blue Parcel.
All of the land is Green Belt land of highest category separating the two villages.
The Council claims that running the complex is not financially sustainable, without providing evidence or an analysis of root causes per sector of activity. Based on this claim it has tendered the site for lease, and named Wycombe Wanderers FC the winners amongst at least a dozen bidders.
There are a number of serious legal questions about the process and the outcome. But what alerted the public was the proposal that came with the announcement of the partnership.
The Proposal
The proposal is to change the use of the land fundamentally by developing a large, fenced off football academy for WWFC's professional teams. This is the one primary driver for WWFC to engage with the site at all.
They target the northern area of the land, meaning that the golf course must give up about half of its holes.
The community is not against football per se, but this is a major development severely changing the character of the land, sits right on the Green Belt, and serves private use rather than the public.
The open green space between the villages deserves to be preserved for future generations, not to be built on and fenced away.
What will the academy look like?
No detailed plans have been submitted yet, but indications hint at a football academy to the highest available standards, including but not limited to:
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multiple new full size football pitches, in addition to the 11 pitches already existing on the playing fields (map bottom left), some likely with astroturf
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minimum one indoor pitch with a massive dome, see example below. So if you picture a full-sized football dome: think about the height of a 6- to 9-storey building in the centre.
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a number of ancillary buildings, changing and meeting/social rooms, gym, catering, spa/wellness, sauna, storage... a small settlement in itself.
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new sufficient car parks and access road connecting to Park Road
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fences around all or most of it
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all exclusively or mostly exclusively for a professional football club with its base 14 miles away and no historical roots in rural Stoke Poges
What does it mean?
Who we are
What you can do
For very quick readers
Example of Football Dome (compare size with 2-storey building top left!)
Example of Stoke Poges/Farnham Royal Green Infrastructure (this is the very land under attack)
