Enfield Council’s planning committee approved the plans last month but both the London mayor and deputy prime minister still hold the power to overturn decision

The Tottenham Hotspur plans for Whitewebbs with (inset left) Sadiq Khan and (inset right) Angela Rayner

Councillors representing Whitewebbs have written to both the London mayor and deputy prime minister to request they “call in” Tottenham Hotspur’s plans for a women’s football academy.

For certain types of application Sir Sadiq Khan has the power to review and potentially refuse schemes, even if they have been approved by the relevant borough council’s planning committee – as happened last month with the controversial Whitewebbs Park development.

Because Whitewebbs Park is part of London’s Metropolitan Green Belt, it falls within the mayor’s scope, and three Conservative councillors representing the ward have now written to Khan to urge him to call it in.

The trio – Reece Fox, Hannah Dyson and David Skelton – have also written to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, whose Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) also holds the power to review significant planning applications, deemed to have potentially national interest, with a similar request.

The councillors argue that the fencing off of a public park by a private company would set an unwanted precedent in London and beyond.

In their letters to Khan and Rayner, they write: “We believe that the proposal violates the council’s responsibility (in trust) to ensure that the park remains open for all residents, goes against the London Plan in both spirit and letter, and presupposes both the planning inspector’s deliberations about the Enfield Local Plan, as well as the London-wide review of the Green Belt by the mayor.

“Since these proposals were formally announced in 2021, local residents in Enfield have been fighting to stop Enfield Council from selling over half of Whitewebbs Park to Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

“On every occasion that they have been given an opportunity to voice their opinion, residents have made clear their strong opposition to the development.

“You have the power to protect this park and indeed have the power to announce clear protections for public parks. This is an opportunity to state that parks must remain”preserved for public use. If this can happen to Whitewebbs Park, it can happen anywhere.”

The Dispatch has approached both the mayor’s office at City Hall and MHCLG but both responded to say that they had not yet had a chance to look at the planning application.

A decision from either office may take some time as the details of the final conditions set to be attached to the Tottenham Hotspur planning application – including changes to the access road for the site that the committee requested at last month’s meeting – have yet to be published.

At the meeting, Spurs captain Bethany England, whose £250,000 signing broke the domestic transfer record for women’s football, hailed the women’s academy scheme as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity”.

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