Easter Sunday’s walk / demo, led by the Guardians of Whitewebbs, revealed much, not least to confirm we have on our doorsteps a magnificent park, rich in ecology and biodiversity and yet a park under real threat because of “exceptional circumstances”, that is a desire by Spurs to extend their nearby, already huge, training pitch footprint right into the heart of it, demolishing and uprooting as they go.
On reaching the Whitewebbs Oak - that stump of so much recent national media attention- two more points of significance struck me. Both were articulated in form by Russel Miller, a tree expert of the highest pedigree.
Firstly, that the UK holds a dominant 80% of Europe’s remaining stock of such magnificent forest cathedrals. This he explained was due to the absence of land wars in the UK plus our social structure which meant aristocrats were able to hold onto land simply for holding onto land purposes. It’s thus reasonable to see our duty to protect and preserve the small stock remaining as an international duty - certainly extending well beyond the adjacent car park space for those partaking in a Sunday roast.
Secondly, when he explored the apparent timeline: he had personally examined the oak in December, his colleague similarly in February, and, along with a third independent analysis, all had concluded the oak was in fine fettle. Why then, a question was floated, did an unmarked contractor happen to bowl up complete with large cherry picker, determine the tree to be of imminent risk to the public, obtain (or be instructed by) the nearby Mitchells and Butler / Toby Carvery organisation with some form of OK and then fell it. Had there been an apparent risk, why not simply cordon off the tree, contact the owner (our council) and its tree officer, perhaps also other specialists given the uniqueness of the tree, and go from there. An extra day or three for due diligence in a 500-year lifespan doesn’t appear too unreasonable. We learn from the apology letter of the CEO that this was another case of “exceptional circumstances”.
It was already known that as part of the nearby “exceptional circumstances” planning permission that Spurs were looking to extend into public park management over a large expanse of Whitwebbs set to fall outside of their planned 2m high boundary wall but within their planning application. We subsequently heard of their option to move into Sunday roast provision via an option held over the Toby Carvery. Fair does, for their football team has not been performing well so it might make sense to explore other options. But add in repeated rumours of approaches to other nearby land and assets, hotels and whatever, and the risk is this all starts to feel a little beyond coincidental and rather yields the impression of a larger jigsaw not yet revealed to the public, possibly not to our council, primarily centred on public park green belt.
For me it’s imperative Mayor Khan, or even the Secretary of State, calls-in the planning decision of the training pitches deal and sets it within any wider, future, ambition of Spurs for green belt use. Let the sunlight in and see what, if anything, it reveals, for if their intent is to eat an elephant one bite at a time, let them say so.
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f this is how big corporations treat nature, think how Spurs will treat Whitewebbs it if is allowed to develop it for its proposed new training centre. But isn't Toby Carvery largely owned by Spurs' subsidiary company, Odyzean Ltd?
