Kempton Park racecourse is under threat and I’ve heard and read a lot about it in the last couple of days. I’m interested in Kempton racecourse as an example of a proposed development but also a little bit as a racecourse. Here is some of the coverage – mostly from horse racing sources to illustrate some of the arguments (Jockey Club, Sporting Life, Racing Post, Guardian, BBC).
The Jockey Club owns Kempton Park which is located in Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey but is basically in south west London as far as most of us are concerned. The Jockey Club proposes to ‘develop’ the racecourse by turning it into a housing estate, which would certainly be a development of a sort. Because of its Royal Charter, the Jockey Club has to make a case that everything it does will benefit the wider sport of horse racing, even covering a racecourse with houses. Developing Kempton Park will help racing because there will be more dosh to go round.
As with any development, the developer says that although they will make money out of the scheme, it is really for the wider good, a great opportunity and will benefit society at large. And those against the development say that the site is unique and irreplaceable, that the loss to society as a whole is far greater than the gain, and that it will harm the local environment (which can’t cope with any more development) and that local people are dead against it.
It is usually the case that all of these arguments have some truth to them and that’s why we have a planning system so that developers cannot ride roughshod over locals’ views and a bunch of nimbies cannot prevent progress. In the discussions about the proposal for concreting Kempton it has been mentioned, but quite rarely, that this is green belt land and that’s supposed to be a hint that it should remain green (and painting the housing estate doors and window frames green just won’t cut it).
Eventually there will be some wildlife dragged into the argument by somebody who clearly has never seen the plant, insect or vertebrate in question.
Kempton Park is certainly unique, as is every British racecourse in a way that, for example, would be difficult to argue for every racecourse in the USA (although I bet they do!). US racecourses are pretty universally flat, oval tracks around which the horses run anticlockwise. British and Irish racecourses are all different. Kempton Park is a flat, right-handed (horses run clockwise) track whereas its near-neighbour Sandown is a right-handed undulating track. Cheltenham and Aintree are left-handed tracks: Cheltenham undulating with a steep uphill finish and Aintree flat as a pancake. Newmarket and Epsom aren’t even circular! Different courses favour different individual horses. A famous example, related to Kempton, is that the great (and totally wonderful) Desert Orchid gained most of his wins on right-handed tracks like Kempton Park, Sandown, Ascot and Fairyhouse (in Ireland) and was a less brilliant, though still brilliant, horse of left-handed tracks such as Cheltenham: which makes his 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup victory all the more splendid. The closest steeplechase, in prestige, to the Cheltenham Gold Cup run elsewhere is the King George VI chase run at…Kempton Park (on Boxing Day). Desert Orchid won this race four times (and fell once allowing French raider Nupsala to win at 25/1!), and other Cheltenham Gold Cup winners have also triumphed at Kempton Park (eg Arkle, Best Mate, Kauto Star (a 5-times King George winner), Long Run and See More Business). Will the latest King George winner, Thistlecrack (who romped home) be the next dual winner of these two prestigious races come March?
I could go on – at length – but I sense that I may have made the point that if you are into horse racing then there are lots of reasons why Kempton Park is part of the scenery, part of the history, part of the fabric of the sport and in some ways unique. But horse racing is just a bunch of horses running around in circles (either left-handed or right-handed, or sometimes not in circles at all) and surely you can do that anywhere? A bit like, an ancient woodland is just a bunch of old trees and there are plenty of old trees or you can plant some young trees and wait for them to get old.
I’d prefer Kempton Park to remain as Green Belt and for all that history to remain in situ, hanging in the Surrey air to be inhaled every time I go to Kempton Park but racecourses come and go. Kempton Park is far from our most ancient racecourse having only been around for c140 years. Yes it is unique and to some extent it is irreplaceable, but rather less irreplaceable than an ancient woodland which by definition has been around far, far longer. But I suspect that many would disagree.
PS A race-going anecdote (just because I can): I’ve been to Kempton a few times and it is a rather chavvy racecourse, often full of young men with plastic glasses of lager and shiny suits with no ties. Its chavviness is part of its appeal! I’ve even dragged my family there a few times and it was when my son was about 9 years old, on a day when the discarded betting tickets (or slips) were being gathered up in small whirlwinds in front of the stand that he came and told me that a man had stood on his foot but had said sorry. He pointed out the man and it was the then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook who was a keen racegoer. I explained who the man was and so Kempton Park in our family is ‘where Robin Cook stood on son’s foot’. That probably isn’t a great deal of important evidence for not building houses on the place.
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Mark,
Developing Kempton Racecourse in to a housing estate, arguably could increase biodiversity; especially if reasonable enhancement measures are conditioned. For example, greenspace could provide provision for pollinator-friendly landscaping, sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) could provide a mosaic of aquatic and wetland habitats; houses could incorporate swift bricks (or a swift tower could be provided) and so on. If the developer in combination with the ecological consultant, the local planning authority and locals all supported such proposals, then if the racecourse is to be developed, perhaps a better outcome would come of this than otherwise be the case? So, rather than right in and object; perhaps write in (and you don’t have to be local) offering a qualified support, providing exemplary biodiversity enhancements are conditioned and a Landscape and Ecological Management Plan (or similar) is produced to detail management and monitoring post-construction. The Olympic Park in London has achieved something of this and such as development could be viewed; and certainly portrayed, as an example of the legacy sport is hoping to achieve.
Richard
Richard – thank you for an interesting comment.
And also there’s an urgent need for more affordable houses (at a rate of 200.000/year). Very little is happening. But yes to rehousing those swifts – it will probably happen – it just needs two ticks in two yes boxes: Is it easy to do? Is it cheap?
But re this proposed plan and all those young people desperate for a modest home of their own, there will probably be no boxes – none to tick, none to live in.
So you might as well keep the racecourse and keep the housing benefit bill at £25,000,000,000 a year and keep all the societal and economic misery that goes with that.
I do so admire your faith in the planning system Richard.
Along with the other suggestions herein about ‘potential’ I’m sorry if I sound a grump aka a realist but I have observed too many instances where the reality was profit pure and simple? Why therefore, I wonder do I remain an agnostic?
! wonder perhaps, will critical mass of community challenge join with hope …. such tactics might deliver some potential?
I’ve always thought the King George at Kempton over 3m to be a fairer test than than the 3m 2f at Cheltenham. The classiest staying chasers usually win the King George, the Gold Cup is not quite the same imo.
But perhaps I’m biased as I have very fond memories of watching the brilliant Teeton Mill ‘annihilate’ the field in the 1998 King George. That was a day to remember as Teeton Mill’s win enabled my late father to buy a yacht and pursue his dream of sailing around the British Isles with just my mother for company, something that was completely unthinkable just three years beforehand when he was facing deaths door whilst waiting list for a heart and lung transplant. Funnily enough, he didn’t like horse racing very much, but it was a means to an end!
He did once tell me something about the importance of sectional times rather than collateral form at Kempton, the finer points of which have been lost in the mists of time..
Joe – I really enjoyed that comment although it may be lost on most readers of this blog… Thank you.
Kempton is a fairer test – but I prefer the tougher test of Cheltenham (and the course is prettier!).
Yes much prettier, possibly too much so. On my only visit to Cheltenham on a beautiful crisp blue sky day, I ca remember looking up to Prestbury Hill and feeling slightly guilty that I should really be doing something else!
It is not just race courses under threat. Golf courses are also under threat due to a falling number of players. The boom of the 1980s and 90s saw many more built often removing mono cultural farm land into a mixture of grasses. trees shrubs, heath, wetland and woodland. Some are SSSIs in their own right and many are in urban areas like Kempton offering a ‘Green’ escape. One in Essex has been reduced from an 18 hole to 9 hole with holiday properties built on the remainder. Amazingly new courses are still being built with Donald Trump in Aberdeen [He also bought Turnbury in Aryshire!] and a on the island of Jura by a private development!
Funny how ‘tradition’ can be so easily relegated to the sidelines when money is involved – and by pretty much the same group of people as are using it as a central argument for Grouse shooting. NT should bear this in mind when they try to use it as justification for re-letting shooting in the Peak District.
Very well said!
Mark I’m glad you were able to write a typically entertaining and informative piece about Kempton Park.
It threw up a few questions in my mind.
1. Is there any official recognition of the wildlife, landscape or historic value of the place – eg is a Site of Metropolitan Importance http://www.gigl.org.uk/our-data-holdings/designated-sites/non-statutory-sincs/ or an SNCI (if its in Surrey).
2. has the developer stated that they intend to include affordable homes in the development, or contribute to their being built close by.
3. Has the developer stated they intend to include large areas of high quality greenspace on the development.
4. What will the impact be of all these new houses on nearby greenspaces which may already be at or over capacity.
On a pedantic note, Ancient Woodlands are by definition irreplaceable because in order to qualify as Ancient Woodlands they had to have been around in 1600 and continuously wooded since then.
Interesting! I am no fan of horse racing in any form (what kind of zealot does that make me?)t this area has a special place in my ornithological heart. I qualified as a bird ringer at the Reservoir site next door in the early 1970’s ( as part of Surrey Bird Club). We also had access to the race course site and I remember it as a big patch of gravel pits in the middle, where I ringed my first Little ringed Plover chicks and Lapwing chicks. There was also a heronry at Kempton Park itself and there were big old trees with nesting Stock Doves, Barn Owls and even Mandarins. The stream which was the boundary between the gravel pits and the race course site was a fine site for Kingfishers and we caught grey wagtails and Common Sandpipers when they were in passage. I have not been back since late 1970’s, so I wonder what it is like today. There should be a lot of bird related data in the Surrey Bird Club archives.
The Planning system does not stop developers riding roughshod over the local community. The conservative government has seen to that by encouraging house building on green belt and conservation areas. They believe that building homes that locals cannot afford enhances the economy. In my opinion it leads to even more imports from China. In northern England in many cases People from southern England are buying up these houses as an investment for rental.
It’s true it’s not the same as losing a woodland (or Swansea Bay) but it seems a pity we can’t hang on to somewhere so famous and full of good memories. I once met an ageing Red Rum and a young Desert Orchid at a local fete. Red Rum was a real gentleman and seemed to enjoy his stardom, while Dessie would cheerfully have bitten your face off. I also met Aldaniti at a separate event and took the opportunity to have a photo with him. When I held his bridle he pressed his velvety nose against my cheek and breathed into my face, unfortunately several moments before my Mum got the camera pointing the right way! Happy days.
‘I once met an ageing Red Rum’
There were some comments back in the early 90’s about the fact that Red Rum was looking remarkably well for a horse of his age, this led to rumours that the Red Rum which turned up to the opening of 100’s of bookmakers shops, local fete’s etc over the years, wasn’t the same ‘Red Rum’ that won three Grand National’s… Who knows? I thought better of asking the irascible Ginger McCain whilst he was berating me over the phone over something that had absolutely nothing to do with me… I was tempted though!
Joe W – that sounds interesting!