WWFC Application Information Hub
Planning application PL/26/07779/FA

7. This is still charitable land

How much does this weigh?

There is a feature of this site which is easy to miss if one looks only at the planning application:

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Most of Farnham Park Playing Fields and South Buckinghamshire Golf Course is held as charitable trust land under the Eton Rural District Council Act 1971, and the Council is subject to express statutory duties governing how that land may be maintained, managed and developed.

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Section 12 requires the Council to maintain and manage the trust land in accordance with Schedule 4 and states that it “shall not develop any of the land … except in accordance with the said Schedule 4.” 

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Schedule 4 defines the permitted purpose around the physical well-being and recreation of local residents, including outdoor sports such as football and golf.

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Large areas are being removed from existing public recreational use

The proposal would convert substantial areas of land currently used for public recreation into a secure professional football training campus principally serving WWFC's First Team and Academy.

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That is a major change in the character of the land.

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The key question is therefore not simply whether football is a recreational activity. It is whether development of this scale and character, with restricted public access and a predominantly professional purpose, is development in accordance with Schedule 4.

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Why this matters here

The planning application and the charitable-land question are separate.

Planning permission would answer whether the development is acceptable in planning terms.

It would not by itself answer whether the proposed use of the charitable land complies with the statutory trust framework.

That second question matters because Parliament expressly restricted how this land may be developed.

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Our concern

This is not ordinary Council land.

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It is charitable land already dedicated to public recreation and subject to an express statutory restriction on development.

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The central question is whether converting substantial parts of that land into a secure professional training campus is consistent with the purpose Parliament prescribed for it.

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We do not think so.

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