Dear Neighbour
After 26 years of flying from Kempton Park, the Kempton Park Model Flying Club has been given notice to quit by the end of April next year. Kempton Park have also written to local Councillors asking for help in finding the club a new home (Document 82, attached).
The letter from Mr Phil White, the General Manager of Kempton Park, is undated, but was sent out late last week, just as the KPMFC was told of the decision. He says there have been “a number of complaints from neighbours”. As we understand it, there have been just two complaints this year. One was resolved to the satisfaction of the complainer within days of the complaint being made. The other is the subject of a yet-to-be-completed investigation by Spelthorne’s Environmental Health Department. In fact, the KPMFC have told us that Mr White had said, in their meeting last week, that there was only one complainant.
Kempton Park is quoted in today’s Surrey Herald as saying that the eviction of the KPMFC has nothing to do with the proposed construction of 1500 dwellings + commercial units on the Kempton Park estate. It must be sheer bloody coincidence, then, that the club’s flying area (outlined in red on Document 83 attached) is right in the middle of the expanse which The Jockey Club wishes to cover with concrete (outlined in yellow).
And what about a response from Spelthorne Council? It’s been a week, and nothing, to our knowledge, has been said or done. One would have thought that it is part of the Council’s remit to encourage the public use of Green Belt land such as the Kempton Park estate.
The areas outlined in blue on Document 83 are the parcels of land subject to the Covenant, whereby Spelthorne Council stands to receive, based on conservative estimates, more than £14 million, if they or anyone else grants permission to develop that land. There is another £14 million to be had by the Council from other sources of “planning gain” if the development goes ahead.
KPMFC’s flying area lies within the northern of those two areas of land, and their clubhouse within the southern area. What a glad event of totally unforeseen serendipity for the Council.
If anyone knows of a possible new site for the KPMFC, please could you contact the club on 07891 900372 .
Recently released FOI documents confirm that a planning application is expected to be made by The Jockey Club after the general election in May 2015. At the same time we are likely to have to fight to ensure that swathes of Spelthorne’s open spaces are not released for development in the Review of our Local Plan. We will need funds to fight both.
Donations to the Keep Kempton Green Fighting Fund can now be made through PayPal. Just go to http://www.losra.org, scroll down a little, and click on the button marked “Donate to the Keep Kempton Green Fund”. You can also donate by cheque. Please make your cheque payable to LOSRA and send it to:
20 Green Street, Sunbury, TW16 6RN
As you would expect, the identity of all donors will be kept confidential.
Remember: Keep Kempton Green began as a campaign to protect Green Belt at Kempton Park. That campaign has now been forced to expand to protect Green Belt throughout Spelthorne, which is all at risk in a forthcoming review of our Local Plan, in which the Council appears to be planning the building of 8000 dwellings over the next twenty years. This threat is against the whole Borough. It has to be fought.
Visit us at http://www.keepkemptongreen.com, Like our Facebook page, and Follow us on Twitter (links to both on the website). Leave your comments at all three.
Kind regards, and thank you very much in advance for your generosity.
Keep Kempton Green
Keep Kempton Green 