You may already have read by now that the tennis club have agreed to sell the Romany site, which carries with it the restrictive covenant, to the developer Abid David of The Whitepost Health Care Group
Mr David has written to immediate residents in an attempt to placate their fears and has stated that the scout hut and its associated buildings are not under threat and that he wants to retain all existing activities at the Romany.
Indeed he even confirms that he has offered to build a new hut for the scouts and a new playground for the Playhouse Playgroup.
Fantastic I hear you say. So whats the problem?
The problem is that Mr David intends to breach the terms of the restrictive covenant that was put in place to ring fence the site as public open space. The covenant protects the land from any development that is not directly connected to the uses allowed within the covenant- and that is basically sport and recreation. His proposals do not fall within that class of uses.
The covenant was put in place in 1941 with the scouts as existing tenants. IThe original owners even went as far as ensuring that activities on the site would not cause a nuisance to the neighbours. It could not be clearer that this space was not to be developed upon until after the year 2100.
What we understand this developer wants to do is to put 2 private nursery buildings or one large one, on plot B. With car parking spaces. He will need access over plot A to do this. So the scouts will lose part of their land. The play area he is proposing will be very small. The hut will be smaller. In effect, he will be condensing the occupation of the other community groups into a far smaller footprint than ever before.
Also what Ali Adam of the tennis club let slip when she made representations together with a barrister to Wandsworth Council in April this year is that Mr David actaully wants to develop the whole site. In fact Ali Adam even told Wandsworth Council that the tennis club would strenously resist the renewal of the scouts lease, granting them a term of 5 years at most, so that the whole Romany site could be developed. This was news indeed to the scouts but explained why Ali Adam had not responded to their requests to renewed terms.
Quite apart from this also being the polar opposite of what she has been telling tennis club members, this obviously was designed to increase the value of the land. Fettered as it is with an Asset of Community Value listing and the restrictive covenant that also requires any proposals for new buildings to be submitted for planning consent Mr David will now have to play a softly softly game of cat and mouse.
His offer to renew the scouts lease is, on the face of it fantastic news. What a relief! BUT, please be aware that he could upon lease renewal in 15 years time, when the outcry over his 1 or 2 private nursery buildings has died down, simply refuse to renew the scouts lease under one of the few grounds upon which the Landlord is able to object to a lease renewal. Youv'e got it- redevelopment.
So why, you ask yourself, does he not kick them off now? Well, the reason is this. The scouts correctly served notice on the tennis club (their landlords at the time) over a year ago we believe when their 99 year lease was coming to an end that they wished to renew the lease for 15 years - as they were entitled to as protected business tenants under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954.
The tennis club then had 2 months in which to serve a counter notice if they wished to object to the renewal on one of the limited grounds (think, terrible tenant, never pays rent, breaches terms of the lease and redevelopment etc and you will get the gist of the limited grounds for objecting to a protected renewal). But they did not serve notice. There had been no reason to. The tenants were fine. Until Mr David came along that is waving his wallet that is.
So, what can the scouts and all other community users expect in 15 years? Yes, you've guessed it. Eviction notices. Simples.
Bye Bye the Romany. Unless Wandsworth Council decide to uphold the trust that was placed in them to uphold the terms and spirit of the restrictive covenant that is.
The public meeting at Beatrix Potter School at 8pm will see members of the tennis club, Wandsworth Borough Council, Sadiq Khan MP, Cllr Kathy Tracey, Mr Abid David, Ali Adam, the Scouts, the Twins Group, Playhouse Playgroup and other community users of the Romany explain their positions.
Please make an effeort to attend and help protect this unique community asset.
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