I am writing to you in response to a letter from the chairman of the Wimbledon and Putney Conservators (WPCC) dated 15 July 2014 which has just been posted on their website.

Friends of Putney Common (FofPC) regret the decision made by the Appeal Court. Lord Justice Patten and his colleagues relied on Clause 39 of the 1871 Act which governs the actions of the conservators. This states that they may "make and maintain such roads and ways as may be in their judgment necessary or proper". We believe, and continue to believe, that they and the judge are wrong in that view, and that the overriding principle stated in the act that the "The Conservators shall at all times keep the commons open, unenclosed, and unbuilt on" should have taken precedence.

It is unfortunate that Mr Devons should give the impression that all the land owned and registered to the WPCC around Putney Hospital is to be "returned to the common". Yes, some of it will be converted to grass. But over 1,000 square metres of it will not, as Lord Justice Patten states in the judgment "the easement will create additional rights of way over a turning circle which is to be constructed at the northern end of the new road in front of the school. With the exception of a few small areas, the rights of way will therefore be over the Common." We objected to a private accessway and related works being built on the common, and continue to do so.

The FofPC has never been against the building of a school or development of the site, despite what the Lord Justice stated. The road on the Common allows for over intensive development. The WPCC should have reclaimed its own land when the hospital was vacated in 1998. Instead they took no action apart from erecting a hoarding on their own land. They have now sold the access rights for the development over a "ransom strip" for the derisory sum of £350,000, an amount which is just 20 per cent of what it was worth.

Nicholas Evans

Friends of Putney Common

Commondale

Putney

 


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