Abridge: Parish councils have joined forces to fight plans for a Tottenham Hotspur football academy.

The group, which includes district councillors, has already received strong support from more than 100 residents who voiced their anger at two public meetings this week.

The Premiership club's plans would see 54 acres of green belt land near Abridge Golf and Country Club, off Epping Lane, Abridge, turned into a state-of-the-art facility.

The deadline for comments on the application is the end of July and the group hopes that by generating enough protest it can defeat the proposals.

As part of their campaign, councillors plan to bombard 3,000 homes with a letter detailing the plans hoping people will be spurred into action.

Lambourne district councillor Stephen Metcalfe said: "We're looking for people to express their opinions as vigorously as possible so we can ensure the councillors appreciate the depth of feeling on this issue."

The campaign group is made up of the two main parish councils affected, Lambourne and Theydon Bois, as well as Stapleford Abbotts, Stapleford Tawney, Theydon Garnon and Theydon Mount.

Theydon Bois parish council chairman John Eaton said: "This land is good farm land in the green belt, kept in good condition, and this proposal is a step too far."

Lambourne parish council chairman Arnold Raven said: "Nobody with any common sense would think that wanting to put it there is a good idea with transport going down Epping Lane, which at times is a single road lane."

Commenting on Monday's public meeting at Abridge village hall, Mr Metcalfe said: "People were fairly angry and are very vocal on this issue. They're up in arms. I suspect Spurs think it will go through but we will fight it all the way to make sure our views are taken into consideration."

Tottenham Hotspur director Paul Kernsley said the centre would only require four per cent of the site to be built upon and would be partially underground with a turfed roof.

He said: "The training centre building has been uniquely designed to have a very minimal impact on the local environment and to work in sympathy with the local landscape.

"The outside facilities will be set on landscaped terraces within a network of new hedgerows and our research shows that the new centre will have a very minimal impact on traffic growth overall."

July 11, 2002 09:30