Letter sent to teams that use warren farm facilities "Firstly can I just briefly clarify the position with regards to Warren Farm and QPR. The site has not been sold to QPR. QPR have been offered a long lease on the site aligned to a development agreement that ensures that part of the site will be developed and opened for community use. The Council retains legal powers through the lease to ensure that the community benefits are adhered to. We have been very much involved in this process and delighted with the plans to significantly enhance the community football provision at Warren Farm. Indeed plans are being progressed to put in place a community representative steering group for the site for which football will be represented and I would welcome discussions with you on how best to represent the adult football needs on the site. We fully recognise that there will be a period of time that the site will be closed whilst the significant improvements are made to the site and alternative arrangements are necessary. Currently, The management at Warren Farm has been taken over this season by Enterprise. The company have a representative in the council offices in the same department as sports development and have been assured that are communicating on a regular basis. The policy on Warren Farm is to offer all current users availability until October 2012 at which point the site will close for development in line with the plans that have been discussed with us. This has always been the target date however it may well be that the October date will be extended as there is a possible delay in the build start date. However we fully recognise that as a club and league you would be reluctant to take on a short term hire as it is bound to cause problems." The bits in bold interest me as we would not own the ground but rent ala Harlington but also there could well be a delay in the building start date. I thought originally that this was supposed to be ready for the start of next season but I am wondering if this will not now be the case?
Interesting article SR. Cheers. Long term lease will be fine. The possible delay in the starting date is a worry. can't see how it was ever going to be ready for the start of next season.
Saw it on watrb Apparently was sent to one of the teams that use the pitches. Reads to me we won't own the ground
Forgive my ignorance but how big is Warren Farm? Agree with Nuts - the terms seem fine but the delay is a concern. Wasn't it meant to be ready for next season?
Highly doubt they'd expect us to be making a multi-million pound investment just so the council can push us about once it's all built on their land. Doesn't seem the best thing to do. Not 'long term' like mr fernandes makes out.
I don't understand why everyone seems to be missing a very important word here; "part". It says clearly that we own the site (so it's totally different to Harlington), but that there is a provision that "part of the site" would be available for community use. As stated, it's a huge site, and there's no way that we'd be using every single pitch all day every day anyway. I honestly don't see the problem. We always knew that we would have never been awarded the lease if we'd not offered this kind of provision to the community. Personally I think that it's a good thing that the local community will get access to it. The delay in moving in is a bit disappointing, but we all know what working with builders can be like, and with the recent improvements at Harlington there's no great hurry anyway. I think everyone needs to relax a little here. Nothings changed.
It's a two-way street, we'd never have got the lease without the 'community' side of the deal being agreed and the council have the legal duty to ensure that this is adhered to. I think the start of 2014-15 is far more realistic and we'll be ok till then at Harlington...
