In June 2025 Patrick Connaghan, the owner of Capital Girls Elite Development, a girls-only football provision programme in north London, welcomed the granting of planning permission to the training ground at Whitewebbs.
He told BBC Radio London: “On a weekly basis, we struggle for pitch space and with ever-growing financial costs, it’s a hard task to find facilities of a standard to train the talents we have.
“If this gets off the ground, it will give us access to so many opportunities for young girls to seek visibility and their dreams.
“If we invest in the opportunities for grass-roots sports to be better, the ability will rise at the top of the women’s football pyramid.”
Guardians of Whitewebbs had called the public benefits of the development “paltry” and said the decision to grant permissions “flies in the face of common sense”.
It argued the development represented a loss of public and biodiverse green space – specifically about 40 acres of rewilded grassland and more than 200 trees.
“Football pitches can in no way make up for the permanent loss and degradation of green space,” the group said.
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