We are writing to you regarding the proposed development of the former Imperial Medics site at Udney Park Road and to outline the position taken by the Board of Teddington RFC Ltd to work with the new owners, Quantum, to secure a significant proportion of these playing fields for future long term community use. This document sets out the rationale for this support and asks you to make your position known via the on-going public consultation process.

As you may know, Teddington Athletic Football Club has secured a short-term lease on the ground from Quantum, who purchased the site last year. TRFC uses the facility under this lease for Juniors, Ladies and Mens mid-week training and on Sunday mornings for Mini and Junior games or training.

It is Quantum’s stated intention is to create an integrated, sustainable, mixed use development including a Continuing Care Retirement Community, Health and Wellness Facilities, Public Open Space and Community Sports Facilities and they have been consistent with this vision in how they have made the site available for community use whilst hey develop their plans in detail.

We have been working hard with Quantum, TAFC, and other sports and community organisations, to influence the future and design of the community sports facilities, and are pleased to say that we believe we have established a path forward which is beneficial for Teddington RFC and the community as a whole.

The Directors of TRFC and the club Management Team have reviewed the information so far made public by Quantum and, on the assumption that these commitments are honoured, believe that it is appropriate for the club to support these plans. Our rationale for this position is explained in the attachment.

As we all know there are various views on whether the grounds should have been sold to Quantum and there are multiple perspectives on whether development of any sort should be allowed. There is an on-going consultation process and we would ask you to submit your response at the following Richmond council site:

We want to emphasise that whilst the TRFC Board has decided to support Quantum’s proposals, we are not asking you to do anything other than consider the attached information with an open mind and submit your feedback on the Village Plan through the consultation process. You may or may not agree with the club’s position, and your response to the consultation, should you make one, will be your own personal position. However, if you choose to support the proposals please submit your response via the consultation process link above.

Gareth Cross
Chairman/Director TRFC

Simon Cartmell
Vice Chairman/Director

Attachment

Section 1: The Publicly Declared Plans for Teddington Sports Ground at Udney Park Road

Quantum have provided quite a lot of information about what they plan to do on the site, though this has come through a number of different channels. The information below is quoted from their public newsletters, and their response to the pre-publication Village Plan consultation, which closed on Aug 19th.

The image below shows the latest summary information that we have received from Quantum. It indicates that the majority of the site will be open space – either “Public Open Space” or “Sports Pitches”.

In addition, we have included below, a plan submitted by Quantum to Richmond Council as part of the pre-publication Village Plan consultation.

Quantum’s most detailed statements are included in the pre-publication Village Plan consultation response, part of which is quoted as follows:

“Our aims for the site are twofold:

1. Our first aim is to open up the majority of the site for public access to be used for sport and recreation. As noted above, this will be a substantial improvement for the community over how the site has been used to date and it reflects the objectives the Local Plan is seeking, as set out in section 3.1. To make the most of the sporting and recreational opportunities the site presents for the community, we intend to invest significantly in the development of new sport and recreation facilities, provide a structure for the in-perpetuity operation and maintenance of the land and gift this to the community/LPA. There has been an approach by local interested parties to establish a "Community Interest Company" to potentially take over ownership and run the site in the community interest. This is being actively explored.

2.The second aim for the site is to develop approximately one third of the land as a Continuing Care Retirement Community (retirement/extra care/care home accommodation) that may include health care and other community uses for the wider community and help meet Richmond's pressing requirement for specialist accommodation. We are owners and operators of care-led communities for the elderly and care homes and intend to develop and then run this site as our own facility. This element of development will not only meet an important growing community need but will also enable the funding for the first aim for the site (as above). Therefore, our objective is to bring forward proposals for the site that will benefit the community and be progressive. We are confident that we can bring forward proposals that will preserve the overall townscape character of the site for residents and the borough, open up the majority of the site for public ownership and use, substantially increase the sports and recreation facilities of the borough, deliver much needed specialist elderly care accommodation, provide new community health facilities, and create meaningful employment opportunities to further improve social infrastructure. The changes that we propose to Policy LP14 will enable planning policy to better respond to opportunities, such as ours, that might come forward over the plan period and provide a policy context to control andjudge them.”

If you would like to see more information on the pre-publication Village Plan consultation, there is a lot more information (which was the basis for much of the above) available here:

1 - All responses received on the Pre-Publication Local Plan consultation can be found here.

2 - Appendices here.

We now believe from discussion that the current proposal will show more space for community sports facilities than the diagrams above, indeed discussions with Quantum imply that their built area would be as little as 2.75 acres, leaving nearly 10 acres for open space and community use sports ground.

Section 2: Teddington RFC Rationale for Support of Quantum’s Plans

In determining whether to support the Quantum proposals the TRFC Ltd Board has considered the club’s business plan and future requirements, including the constraints imposed upon it by the Royal Parks Agency in Bushy Park, as well as the broader availability of relevant and appropriate community sports facilities.

2.1 The Teddington RFC perspective:

Broadly the TRFC 5 Year Development Plan drafted in 2013/4 identified three things as critical to the growth of the club if it was to deliver on its ambition to be the leading community rugby club in SW London:

1. A redeveloped, extended clubhouse to match the number of teams and support the planned growth in club membership, in the context of a more stringent Child Welfare environment,

2. Access to additional, reliable pitch space to provide a better playing experience and to increase pitch availability,

3. Access to a high quality central Teddington floodlit training space for Juniors/Ladies/Mens mid-week training – we are no longer able to train under lights in Bushy Park due to light pollution concerns for the local wildlife.

The investments made in the club house and Barton’s Cottage in the past 3 years have addressed point 1 and point 2 in part - there is still concern regarding overuse of the No 1 pitch as a result of scheduling so many games over the weekend onto just 2 pitches, and its lack of availability in April due to the hand over to Teddington Cricket Club. There is also growing concern for the quality of ‘our’ cricket outfield. Additionally, despite extensive searches, we have been unable to find a reliable training space of sufficient size and quality in the ‘greater Teddington’ area.

For these reasons, when it became possible to secure access to the Udney Park Road grounds at an affordable price – something not available when the grounds were owned by Imperial College – it was an opportunity to utilize the pitch space for overflow weekend training/games to take pressure off the Bushy Park pitches and to provide a proper home for floodlit training. Those that have been to Udney Park will all attest to the quality of the pitch space and the general environment and it is working well for the club. The relationship with TAFC and Quantum is positive and the Board of TRFC Ltd would like to find a way of securing access to this space into the long term to deliver on the club development goals and provide a better playing experience for all age groups and sections.

2.2 The wider community perspective:

More importantly however is the broader availability of community sports facilities. In a suburban area such as Teddington community open space is at a premium for obvious reasons and good quality, all weather and floodlit space for sports other than soccer is almost non-existent. Some people want to see the whole Udney Park site designated as community open space and protected from all development. This begs the obvious question – who would pay for the upkeep of the pitches as they now are and manage bookings and future use? If the land is designated in a way to prevent any future development, Quantum clearly won’t, since they need to make a return on their investment. Furthermore, its clear that the Council won’t take over the site, since they would have to buy it from Quantum and then pay for its maintenance.

Because of this conundrum, and in conjunction with the leadership of TAFC, we have considered various options to create a thriving and truly sustainable community resource on the site to see if we could somehow make the case for the site to remain as it is today. However, we have concluded that it is not economic to do so and could not be funded by community use of the site as it is laid out currently due to the cost of maintaining the grass pitches, the constraints of the existing clubhouse and lack of on-site parking.

However it may, subject to planning permission, be possible to re-configure the site to provide facilities which could generate sufficient income (e.g. by running a coffee shop, nursery, having an all-weather playing pitch etc.) to run the site sustainably. This reconfigured site could provide a return on investment, provided that the purchase cost is not too high. It could not, under any scenario that we can conceive, generate sufficient return to adequately compensate a purchase cost close to that paid by Quantum if the site had to be bought back from them.

You will note from Quantum’s proposed development plan, they have suggested a community sports facility, which we understand will include a new club house and multi-use/4G floodlit pitches. Quantum have said that this brand-new facility will be gifted to the community. Properly designed, and with appropriate planning permission obtained, we believe that this facility could be made financially viable. Moreover, by establishing a Community Interest Company (CIC) to manage the facility, the gifted land and buildings would be ‘asset locked’ and secured in perpetuity for use by the community. To make their investment work and to provide the community with such a resource, Quantum clearly need to develop their income generating elderly/residential care facility to make a return on their investment. So the bottom line is essentially that the gift of the revised and sustainable community playing fields and clubhouse is dependent upon Quantum securing planning permission for their broader development.

In this context it is important to consider the other aspects of the debate and the interests of the other parties. The land is protected from development, except in “exceptional circumstances”, by its status as Other Open Land of Townscape Importance. Quantum’s proposed development needs to demonstrate that it constitutes “exceptional circumstances” in order to progress under current rules. As part of the pre-publication Village Plan consultation Quantum have applied to adjust this designation to make development easier. A local-residents organisation – “Friends of Udney Park Playing Fields”, or FUPPF, and the Teddington Society have applied, as part of the same consultation to enhance the planning restriction, making development more difficult. There is no indication in the published Village Plan that either of these proposals have been accepted, but they are presumably being considered by the council.

Quantum have not yet applied for planning permission, and until they do the public, and TRFC, will not see the details of their plans for the site, although we believe they are proposing to install a 4G rugby pitch, 2 football pitches, a multi-use games area, an open space and playground plus a new clubhouse and parking space – all open to broad community use and managed by a newly established CIC. It is currently proposed that Gareth Cross, Simon Cartmell and 2 TAFC Trustees plus an experienced local community, non-sporting ‘name’ become Directors of the CIC. In addition an Advisory Board of other potential users will be formed to create a management body for the CIC that is fully representative of the local community.

With the above information, we have tabulated below the possible outcomes for the future of the site, together with the associated pros and cons as we see them.

Our choices are therefore to be neutral, as we were when the site was originally sold; to work with Quantum on behalf of our club and the broader community by establishing a CIC and supporting their application; or to oppose the plans and risk Quantum deciding to sell the site to another developer or someone with other objectives, not aligned to the best interests of the community as a whole, or to TRFC, or to board the site up and loose access to a ‘once in a life time’ facility.

2.3 Conclusion:

In light of the above, the TRFC Ltd Board have decided to support the proposed combined use development on condition that Quantum adhere to the commitments described above. The Directors have reached this decision on the basis that the CIC-centred proposal is the scenario most likely to create a thriving and sustainable community facility on the site, albeit with the irreplaceable loss of a small amount of green space we are currently enjoying the use of. As stated previously, it is your decision whether to support these proposals and express your opinions in the Village Plan consultation. We hope the arguments advanced above give you sufficient incentive to positively support the conclusions your club directors have reached.

The Board of Teddington RFC Ltd