We want to hear from you - West Ham Park Old Nursery Site

West Ham Park is a registered charity (charity number 206948). The City of London Corporation is the charity’s trustee (Trustee). The Trustee exercises its trustee powers through its committees including the West Ham Park committee. West Ham Park provides over 70 acres of public space for recreation in the London Borough of Newham.

The Trustee proposes to dispose of part of the 3 acre former nursery site (approx. 1.5 acres) situated to the North East of the park, on a long lease for a new housing development, with the remaining 1.5 acres being converted into additional parkland, new operational facilities to support the management of the park and new community facilities to benefit park users and beneficiaries for future generations.

The nursery site was formerly occupied mainly as a plant nursery, with glasshouses and polytunnels, which provided plants and flowers for West Ham Park and elsewhere. The site has also been used as a depot for existing staff in order to carry out the necessary maintenance operations and management of the park.

In July 2015, the West Ham Park Committee decided to close the nursery following an independent report that found that the buildings and site was no longer viable for commercial horticulture, the glasshouses were nearing the end of their economic life and the nursery was a significant contributor to the carbon footprint and energy consumption of the operational estate.

The nursery was subsequently closed in June 2016 and the site is now mainly derelict. Since then, the West Ham Park Committee has considered several options for the site.

The Trustee commissioned property consultants Lambert Smith Hampton to provide advice on the options in February 2017, following which three options were progressed; turning the site to park land, development, or a combination of the two.

In June 2018 architects BDP were commissioned to carry out a feasibility study into these options, following which the West Ham Park Committee decided to proceed with the option to dispose of 50% of the nursery site for development of housing with 50% of the site to be retained by the charity and converted into additional parkland and new operational and community facilities.

The Trustee gave notice of the proposed disposal on 16 March 2022. Since then, the site disposal process and its associated agreements and approvals have taken longer than anticipated. Therefore,a fresh notice under s121 Charities Act 2011 inviting further representations will be given in due course. 

The former nursery site does not form part of the park land which is required to (only) be used as public park in perpetuity.

The charity was created by an indenture (legal agreement) dated 20th July 1874 by which the land was purchased by the City of London Corporation from John Gurney to hold on trust. The trusts which apply to West Ham Park are set out in the indenture, as amended. The original trusts over the land were amended in part by a scheme made by the Charity Commission in 1981.

Under the indenture, the majority of the charity’s land must be retained by the Trustee forever as open public grounds and gardens for resort and recreation, providing over 70 acres of open space. 

However, under the original indenture, the Trustee was permitted to lease certain land (described in the indenture as the land coloured pink) for the development of houses and other buildings, with the income to be used by the Trustee for its expenses of managing and maintaining the park. This was intended as a means of income generation for the park’s ongoing costs. In 1981, the Charity Commission made a scheme to exchange part of the pink land and public park land.

The former nursery site, a 3 acre site in the North East corner of the charity’s land, is situated wholly on the pink land and exchanged land. This means that the whole of the nursery site is permitted to be used for development and is not required to be used as public parkland.

Since the nursery was closed in 2016 the Trustee considered a wide range of options including turning all of the nursery site to parkland, a community run nursery, allotments, a wildlife garden, other community uses, development and income generating uses.

The Trustee engaged external advisors in order to consider the options carefully. It was determined to proceed with the option to retain 50% of the former nursery site and to repurpose it to provide additional park land, community facilities and new operational facilities to service the whole park, whilst the other 50% will be sold for residential development providing funds to meet the future costs of running the park. This will be subject to planning permission being granted by the local planning authority for these future uses.

The City of London Corporation will be disposing of a long lease of part of the former nursery site for development in its capacity as Trustee of the West Ham Park charity. The financial proceeds from this disposal will belong solely to the charity and will contribute to the future running costs of the park. In addition, part of the site will be turned to parkland and the project will provide new operational and community facilities. 

The original indenture expressly permitted ‘the pink land’ to be used for development to generate an income to be used by the Trustee to meet the expenses of managing and maintaining the park or in relation to any other expenses relating to the park.

In any case, a trustee is not expected to be out of pocket i.e. to meet the costs of running the trust from their own funds. By law, a trustee is entitled to be reimbursed from, or to pay from charity funds, expenses properly incurred when acting on behalf of the charity. The Trustee is not obliged to maintain the park from its own resources.

Yes, the City of London Corporation will be disposing of a long lease of part of the nursery site for development in its capacity as Trustee of the West Ham Park charity and so the proceeds of the disposal will belong to the charity and will be ring-fenced and used for the park.

Any decisions taken by the City of London Corporation in relation to West Ham Park charity are taken in its capacity as Trustee of the charity. When acting as Trustee, the City Corporation must act solely in the interests of the West Ham Park charity. The disposal of part of the former nursery site will provide much needed income as well as delivering additional park land, new operational facilities and community facilities for the charity’s beneficiaries in line with the objects of the charity. 

Approximately 50% of the site (in relation to which there is currently no public access) will be retained by the Charity and repurposed to provide additional park land, new community facilities and new operational facilities to service the whole park. There will be a series of engagement activities to enable the local community to get involved in the design of the new facilities. The proposals will be subject to a planning application.

The notice was given in accordance with Section 121 Charities Act 2011 which requires the Trustee to give public notice at least a calendar month before entering into a legal agreement to dispose of the site. The notice contained the relevant information that is recommended to be included by the Charity Commission. 

The original Section 121 notice contains very limited information and the City of London Corporation will keep residents and park users informed on the progress of the proposals. 

The original notice was given in accordance with Section 121 Charities Act 2011, which requires notice to be given at least a month before entering into the disposal (the agreement for lease), with the planning process and public consultation to follow. 

There will be more open green space, not less, as a result of this project. 

In relation to the part of the former nursery site to be disposed of for development, the London Borough of Newham’s policy SC4 covers biodiversity in accordance with which the planning application will need to demonstrate how biodiversity net gain will be delivered and the opportunity to enhance biodiversity is maximised such as green roofs and rain gardens. 

As part of the project, approximately 50% of the site will be retained by the charity and part of this will be converted into additional parkland. The City of London Corporation itself does not have a policy preventing brownfield development and this proposed development will be BREEAM very good. (BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the world's longest established method of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of buildings.)

Overall, the project will result in more rather than less open green space accessible by the public. As noted, as part of the project, the developer will be required to convert part of the land to be retained by the charity to additional parkland (as well as to provide the new operational facilities and community facilities) which will result in more rather than less green space than currently available to users of the park. 

There will be a fresh notice under s121 Charities Act 2011 inviting further representations.

There will also be engagement opportunities with community groups to shape the future opportunities for the park as part of the development proposals and the newly created open space. The community will also be consulted with as part of the Local Authority Planning process.