The Hanwell Community Forum (HCF) has taken legal action against Ealing Council in relation to Warren Farm development.

In May 2012, Ealing Council announced that premiership football club Queens Park Rangers was the preferred bidder for the lease of Warren Farm sports ground in Southall.

The club wants to develop the site as its new training ground and also deliver a range of much needed new facilities to benefit local people.

Warren Farm sports ground is a neglected sports ground on Windmill Lane, Southall.

It has around 30 football, cricket and netball pitches on the 60-acre site. The Council does not have the money to refurbish and upgrade it.

QPR's owners are planning to spend around £30 million on bringing it up to Premier League standards.

They will also be taking over the maintenance of the grounds and the taxpayers won’t be paying a penny towards it.

The QPR application for Warren Farm was considered by Ealing Council’s Planning Committee Wednesday 24 April 2013.

Hanwell Community Forum, a local residents group, has claimed that the council’s decision to grant planning permission for the complex is illegal and that the Council is simply giving away the site to a commercial organisation.

They claim that the vast majority of QPR’s investment would be on facilities for their own use and that only a third of the land would be left for community use.

In response Ealing Council Leader Councillor Julian Bell said: "During the toughest economic times in our history, the council is trying to secure long-term investment in high-quality community sporting facilities that will benefit generations of Ealing residents."

"Before this agreement goes ahead, QPR will have to commit to significant investment in Warren Farm and its public facilities, so to suggest it is a gift is nonsense."

"If this legal action results in a judicial review it will put the council’s finances under even more strain, but we will be able to demonstrate that the decision by our planning committee was sound and based on proper planning conditions, and that the council was acting in the best interests of the people of this borough."

Ealing Council offered a 200-year lease on Warren Farm.