I received the following last week:
“The current proposal for the short term of this site, is to grant a local Football Club an 18 – 24 month lease of the entire property, which they can then operate from, whilst the long term lease and building works of their new club facilities at another site take place.”
Earlier this month, I received the following in response to an enquiry I made regarding the future of the land off Bedfont Lane in which the Ex-Serviceman’s Club was located until recently:
“Following discussions earlier this year the representatives of the Feltham Ex-Serviceman’s Club intimated that they wished to surrender the club back to the Council. My team ensured a smooth and successful handover process over the last few months; one of the main priorities was noted and actioned as to ensuring the security and integrity of the asset whilst consideration of future utilisation of the building was undertaken.
As you have noted below, the security measures, now in place, give assurance against possible fly tipping and possible vandalism; however no specific future use has yet been identified for the property, although consideration of its utilisation within the wider Council asset portfolio is being undertaken.
I will ensure that you are kept informed of any proposals for the utilisation or otherwise of the former club.”
The Feltham North Councillors have held a surgery at this venue every second Wednesday of the month (except October) since 2002. We have replaced that with the Feltham Assembly Hall but the time has slightly changed and is now 7pm to 8:30pm.
Yesterday morning, Peter Thompson and I took a brief walk around two sites in the ward – Feltham Arena & the land around the Feltham Ex-Servicemen’s Club. I have some outstanding casework in relation to the latter.
Everyone knows that I have been frustrated that we have not got further with the Arena but more work has been done than even I realised. Here are some pictures. The first photograph is where the pitch used to be (taken from the Shakespeare Avenue end):
What the next three pictures show is just how much the land around the pitch area has been raised (the plan being to put mini pitches there). The third of them is especially revealing in that when I climbed up from the Shakespeare Avenue end I expected to be able to walk straight back down:
Whilst my frustration remains, more work has been done than even I realised. My hope is that Feltham FC and the Planners are in discussions because local people really want a good scheme to move forward! The potential of this site remains.
I also noticed the following that was dumped. The nearest location is 70 Shakespeare Avenue and is at the gate to the open space between this street and Shaftesbury Avenue:
The visit to the land around the Ex-Servicemans Club (off Bedfont Lane) was also useful. There is clearly a lot of “dead land” and I will communicate with those who contacted me when a response is received from Corporate Property at the Council.
I also noticed that there is no mound of earth at the entrance to Blenheim Park. In the past this was required to avoid the site being occupied (as happened in 2001). Here is what I saw:
I will report the last two pictures.
