Fulham have won their appeal to retain the services of their academy airhall facility at the club’s Motspur Park training ground.
The airhall has offered indoor training facilities for the club’s young players during the winter and has also been used by local schoolchildren since its installation two years ago. The two-year planning permission expired this summer, which meant Fulham were liable to lose both the facility and their academy status.
Fulham appealed Kingston Borough Council’s decision and the planning inspector, Roger Brown, decided in their favour last month. The club’s director of operations Andy Finch said:
“The decision guarantees the future of the Academy’s airhall at Motspur Park. There was a good chance that we could have lost our Academy status if we lost the airhall which was, of course, hugely worrying for everyone concerned. Representatives from the Community Department and Academy, in Simon Morgan and Paul Clement respectively, both put forward their case very strongly.
Also grilled by the council’s counsel were myself and our planning advisor – between us we must have put forward compelling arguments for the airhall’s retention, as we are now the proud owners of a permanent planning permission! Collectively, we put forward a lot of evidence about how our fellow football clubs around the country always go for single-site operations if they have any choice. A few of the clubs that operate their indoor set-ups remotely from their main training facilities – and find it difficult to operate in that manner – wrote in and supported us.”
