Greg Hands, Hammersmith & Fulham MP
"I was amazed when the scheme was explained to me. Hammersmith & Fulham has the smallest area of open space of any London Borough. We should be creating more green spaces, not paving over the ones we already have! I urge the Council and the Club to think again on this and save Bishops Park."
Councillor Stephen Greenhalgh, Conservative Group Leader
"We definitely need more youth provision in Fulham, but the answer cannot be to lease off our public parks. I am hoping that the Council and the Club with withdraw this crazy scheme as soon as possible."
Fulham Alliance
"The Fulham Alliance is totally opposed to this scheme. The Development Control Office of LBHF only notified the houses in Stevenage Road of the application, so FA have distributed 10,000 leaflets around the Borough. We urge people to write and object, and let their local councillors know that they must object on your behalf, or they will lose your vote at the forthcoming local elections in May."
Roger Khanna, Head of Direct Services at the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
(Responding to an email asking for park lighting. 27 September 2005)
"We have too few such areas in cities and especially central boroughs and we really do not want a tide of concrete and steel in place of grass, trees and bushes."
Cllr. Darren Johnson AM -
Green Party Member of the London Assembly
"These plans are ludicrous. I am all for providing community sports facilities but these should not be at the cost of open green space. I don’t understand how Fulham FC can argue that taking away a well loved space and putting it under lock and key will benefit local people. London is awash with brownfield land that would be much more suited to this kind of scheme."
Chris Cox - Geography Teacher (Henry Compton School)
"We use the Park for activities and lessons, this includes Geography and Science. As an inner-city state school with limited funding we will lose the use of a vital community space. We, the school and many parents, cannot afford to send students on fieldtrips outside London."
The Times October 12, 2005 - The Insider By Ashling O'Connor
FULHAM have upset their well-heeled neighbours again. After an unsuccessful battle to turn Craven Cottage into a 30,000-seat stadium two years ago, the Barclays Premiership club have found themselves on the wrong side of another campaign by highly organised residents.
Club officials faced angry protests from the Bishops Park residents’ association last night over plans by Fulham FC Community Sports Trust to construct a full-size Astroturf pitch over one of the few remaining green spaces in the area.
The facility, to be operated by the trust in partnership with the local authority, is said in the planning application to be a key part of the council’s duty to encourage sports participation. It will be used mainly by school groups for football, cricket, hockey and touch rugby. It will not be used as a training pitch by Fulham’s teams, who train at Motspur Park, in Surrey.
Residents, who include BBC correspondents Ben Brown and Frank Gardner and the downhill skier, Konrad Bartelski, are against the loss of a riverside open space that they use for family picnics, dog-walking, jogging, sunbathing, fireworks displays and sports days. With a website and a petition with more than 5,530 names, they appear as well drilled as when they blocked Fulham’s new stadium plan.
Their objections, which reached the House of Lords, and costs spiralling to £100 million forced the club to ditch the plan and simply upgrade the existing ground to 22,000 seats. However, this was only after two years of legal wrangling and an uncomfortable ground-share with Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road.
The Evening Standard - 21st October 2005
Hammersmith & Fulham Informer - 7th October 2005
Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle
 
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