Goodbye Kempton Park

How sad they are building everywhere round here and I can see that racecourses close in to cities would be a easy place to develop.
 
That's really sad news. All that history and those memories of Dessie, Kauto etc.

Seems that we'll have soon have somewhere for everyone to live but nothing for anyone to do.....
 
Very sad to hear this. I have a very different memory of Kempton we used to ride our horses in the wood just at the side of the course if a course car saw us they would not be pleased. It was fun trying to get out of the wood after the horses had thundered past without being taken out by a tree! Oh to be young and so very foolish again.
 
Gutted! Newmarket will get a new beach donkey derby track. But we lose an iconic jumps track in the process.

I just hope they don't turn it into a jakey housing scheme!
 
Clodagh said:
I do prefer Sandown, as a track, but so sad, such a piece of history lost.
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Personally would watch this space!! Heard it might happen 6 months ago . People want houses near their work better there than open countryside there used to be several race tracks around London that nobody would know had been there now.
 
Apparently racing will continue at Kempton until 2021. Let's hope insufficient funds are raised and racing will continue at the Park. Simply cannot imagine Boxing Day without Kempton and the George
 
l'm another one totally shocked especially as it's a track that is full of history. l know they have to put housing somewhere but l feel that so much land is being taken for out of town shopping & industrial developments etc. Why can't councils concentrate on regenerating areas or buildings that have already have or were in residential use instead of targeting greenbelt areas. In kemptons case l just think they want to generate money but if that racecourse is lost there's more than just a racetrack gone very sad indeed
 
Just listening to a bit on the radio about this and they seem to be adamant that it won't happen.

Kempton is greenbelt land and if they need more houses and have to take over some greenbelt land Kenpton would be near the bottom of the list of places to look to.

The jockey club have proposed this a few times over the last 10 years and have always been turned down.

It seems that they think that of they make a huge fuss in the press about it this time it will happen.

No one wants to lose Kempton except from the jockey club themselves!
 
Councils don't seem to care about greenbelt areas as they have built on two large areas at the end of our village & it's had a big impact on the schools & medical practice. Fingers crossed Kempton will be saved but nothing surprises me any more
 
TYSSANDI said:
They wont be happy till they destroy this country and till it is wall to wall brick building and no greenery. If we did not have so many moving in we would not need to add and destroy places of interest or history.
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Don't forget though that this has been going on since men first started living in permanent homes. They cleared forests for farming and gradually built wood then stone homes. The posh folk emparked land for themselves and threw out the yokels and during the Industrial Revolution, many people upped-sticks and moved to the cities to find work, and thus were created - slums. Easter Island used to have trees and now there aren't any because of over-use. My house was built in 1934 and on open farm fields. After both the Wars a huge number of houses were built in order to clear out slums, and most were built in suburbia. The little village I grew up in had a council estate built in the 1970s which almost doubled the population.
 
EKW said:
Just listening to a bit on the radio about this and they seem to be adamant that it won't happen.

Kempton is greenbelt land and if they need more houses and have to take over some greenbelt land Kenpton would be near the bottom of the list of places to look to.

The jockey club have proposed this a few times over the last 10 years and have always been turned down.

It seems that they think that of they make a huge fuss in the press about it this time it will happen.

No one wants to lose Kempton except from the jockey club themselves!
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This. The person interviewed is a local councillor who said that land owners are invited to put forward land to be considered as part of the Local Plan (I know that happened locally). Obviously lots and lots of landowners put forward their land, but not all of it is put into the Plan. Some comes under Green Belt, plus there are lots of other reasons why land is not included. Kempton Park, said the Councillor, is consider an important buffer between their District and London.
Time will tell.
 
EKW said:
Just listening to a bit on the radio about this and they seem to be adamant that it won't happen.

Kempton is greenbelt land and if they need more houses and have to take over some greenbelt land Kenpton would be near the bottom of the list of places to look to.

The jockey club have proposed this a few times over the last 10 years and have always been turned down.

It seems that they think that of they make a huge fuss in the press about it this time it will happen.

No one wants to lose Kempton except from the jockey club themselves!
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I was saying to a colleague the other day when this broke that I'm sure as a child when my dad was playing football for a team a 5 min drive from Kempton 20 odd years ago that there were rumours the of them selling it for housing then but no one else seems to remember this. I've always lived "local" to Kempton and would miss it if it went, was my first ever race course to bet at.
 
I work in housing and the biggest worry is the government push to prioritise house building. Many local authority building plans are incorporating green belt land now and it's not only more acceptable it seems actively encouraged! So what was unfeasible before... could be feasible now. I hope I'm wrong. 😔😔😔
 
Add Folkestone racecourse to the list....its fallen victim to 13,000 new houses...taking in a lot of surrounding farmland of course.
 
Shadowdancing said:
I work in housing and the biggest worry is the government push to prioritise house building. Many local authority building plans are incorporating green belt land now and it's not only more acceptable it seems actively encouraged! So what was unfeasible before... could be feasible now. I hope I'm wrong. ������
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Surely if the country needs housing (which it does) Its a price we have to pay You have to expand the boundaries and keep housing near where the work is otherwise we clog up more roads. Im having 8.5K houses built next door to me which im not happy about however im even more upset in that we are trying to put up two small houses for retired workers so they can stay local and the planners wont have any of it. Money talks in planning!
 
Such a shame. My issue around new housing is that it always seems to go up on relatively clear, green spaces. There are lots of old factories, pubs etc closed down near us. I know it would be more expensive to clear and develop these sites or convert but I think this should happen first...
 
teapot said:
Not just London http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32796143
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I had no idea there used to be a racecourse in North London - how very sad that it was lost along with so many others.

I think the loss of Kempton is a tragedy, and I found what Nicky Henderson said yesterday regarding the good ground very interesting. It seems awfully sad that money talks, surely there are other ways to raise funds than sell off one of the jewels of British racing? Once it's gone, its gone - and for somewhere steeped in such history it seems such a shame.
 
Evie91 said:
Such a shame. My issue around new housing is that it always seems to go up on relatively clear, green spaces. There are lots of old factories, pubs etc closed down near us. I know it would be more expensive to clear and develop these sites or convert but I think this should happen first...
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That would make the most sense, however, trying to apply for planning under current protocols are costly and deemed hardly worth it.

The planning laws need an overhaul and have needed an overhaul for decades. No hope of anything happening under a tory govt... and that May woman won't change much.
 
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