Forum topic: Dogged Whitewebbs campaigners raising money for new legal challenge

Undeterred by multiple setbacks to their fight to stop an international sports giant taking over a large expanse of a nature-rich parkland in north Enfield, a campaign group has launched a crowdfunder to cover the costs of a new legal challenge.

Supporters of the Save Whitewebbs campaign brave cold weather at a demonstration in February this year

The Guardians of Whitewebbs campaign has joined forces with the Public Interest Law Centre to launch a new judicial review of Enfield Council's decision to grant planning permission for a large part of the former Whitewebbs golf course to be covered by pitches for a women's football training centre for Tottenham Hotspur football club.

The council's decision followed a long period of determined campaigning by Friends of Whitewebbs Park and Guardians of Whitewebbs, culminating earlier this year in an unsuccessful appeal to the mayor of London to block planning permission. This was finally granted in July.

The new judicial review will challenge the grant of planning permission. An earlier, unsuccessful, judicial review requested by Sean Wilkinson of the Friends of Whitewebbs Park related to another point of law and, the campaigners say, is not relevant to the planned new appeal.

In April this year Mitchells & Butlers, the owners of the Toby Carvery pub inside Whitewebbs Park, subjected an ancient oak to drastic tree surgery, prompting Guardians of Whitewebbs to stage a demo in protest, as recorded in this video. Mitchells & Butlers are linked financially to the company that owns Tottenham Hotspur FC.

The initial sum required for the launch of the judicial review is £20,000. As of 13th August 224 supporters had pledged money amounting to £10,908, with a further 22 days remaining to obtain pledges for the remainder.

The 240-acre park, comprising grassland and ancient woodland, was bought by Middlesex County Council in 1931 for the public. It is Green Belt land held in public trust on a lease term of 999 years. The park’s grassland section was used from the 1930s until 2021 as a public golf course. The former golf course has since rewilded itself.

The Tottenham Hotspur men's training centre in Whitewebbs Lane was opened 17 years ago. It too is located in the Green Belt, adjacent to, but not visible from, Whitewebbs.

Guardians of Whitewebbs argue that Tottenham Hotspur have no need of a separate training facility for women players and that the amount they will be paying to lease Whitewebbs for 25 years (in total, £2 million) is a trifling amount for such a wealthy football club:

"We support women’s football, but Spurs already have the pitches they need. They won’t allow women to use their existing seventeen elite pitches (constructed on Enfield’s Green Belt seventeen years ago). Only Manchester City has as many pitches as Spurs and they don’t exclude women. So this new facility is completely unnecessary. It’s just an excuse to take more public land. Spurs will rent the land for £2m over 25 years (£80k pa). The club has an annual turnover of over £0.5 billion and spends more than £2m on players’ wages every week!"

The campaigners cast doubt on the likelihood of the club delivering on the promises which it has made in relation to the future of other parts of Whitewebbs, citing their failure to carry out earlier promises:

"When Spurs built their men’s training facility, it promised an on-site education centre for Enfield children and a nature reserve, both private. It said every child would be able to visit these three times in their school career. Now seventeen years later, many children, like Sam Gracie Tillbrook of the Guardians of Whitewebbs campaign, have turned 18, and nothing has been built yet. In fact Spurs diverted that land for use as a 'temporary' football pitch for the women’s team - the original site for the promised nature reserve! This women’s pitch includes a 500-seater spectator stand. The education centre hasn’t been built and the nature reserve, now pushed further along the Green Belt to Dickinson’s Meadow, has only recently been started. As of July 2025, the work on this nature reserve has mainly involved clearing the young woodland, digging a channel to divert the stream and replacing some fence posts. This video created by Sam, “Whitewebbs Park - What Tottenham Hotspur and Enfield Council Don’t Want You to Know”, addresses the misleading claims made by Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and Enfield Council about their proposals to develop Whitewebbs Park."

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