Local MP, Munira Wilson urged the government at the Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday (26 November) to amend the rules of its Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill in a bid to promote her constituency's youths to play more sports.

At the meeting, Munira Wilson MP highlighted the need to turn the "derelict" Udney Park playing fields in Teddington into a sporting facility.

The Lib Dem MP said: "Sitting in my constituency are the much-loved Udney Park playing fields, a 13-acre war memorial playing field which has scandalously lain derelict for over a decade."

She explained that since Imperial College decided to sell the site, which was donated in 1919 for the "playing of "amateur sports" in 2015, "successive developers have purchased the site at overinflated prices and have quite rightly be unable to develop it due to the various important protections afforded to the site".

Munira Wilson MP continued: "This site has been designated an Asset of Community Value (ACV) and despite huge efforts by the local community to buy the land whenever it has been put up for sale by its owners, the two successive owners have refused to agree a price and sell to the community meaning the precious playing fields and pavilion have degraded over time.

"So, I warmly welcome the right to buy provision in this bill. However, it does not go far enough in actually empowering communities to buy precious sites such as Udney Park."

She explained that thousands of local residents, young and old, would benefit from using the playing fields.

"It would focus minds and encourage the owner to sell when they get a fair offer from a community group," she said.

Local community group, Udney Park Community Fields Foundation is hoping to buy the site, but currently, the land's owner Mr Wu is demanding a purchase price of £3.5million and the latest moratorium period under the ACV is about to expire.

Because of this, the group's negotiations to purchase the land have fallen through.

Speaking about the MP's comments, Jonathan Dunn, Chair of the Trustees of the Udney Park Community Fields Foundation told Nub News: "Munira is seeking amendments to remove Hope Value via the Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill.

"This Bill is great as it introduces a special Sporting ACV category for playing field that is permanent (one a playing field always a playing field). This Bill also shifts the current ACV Right to Bid to a Right to Buy.

 "All of this has specific relevance to Udney Park playing fields which remain in the ownership of Leisure Focus, an opaque Chinese owned company based in the British Virgin Islands. Community clubs have been denied access to these fields for over a decade apart from floodlight training by Teddington RFC."

 "If the legislation is successful there will hopefully be a Right to Buy to end the impasse. A local charity, Udney Park Community Fields Foundation, has already made a substantial bid to buy the fields but cannot match the value that Leisure Focus seek to sell at, which is set at a multiple of playing field value."