# Goodbye Kempton Park



## Shadowdancing (10 January 2017)

Absolutely devastated to hear this... Kempton is one of my favourite jumps tracks and to hear they are letting it go to build houses is dreadful news.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...set-to-be-bulldozed-housing-jockey-club-plans


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## Goldenstar (10 January 2017)

How sad they are building everywhere round here and I can see that racecourses close in to cities would be a easy place to develop.


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## Wimbles (10 January 2017)

That's really sad news.  All that history and those memories of Dessie, Kauto etc.

Seems that we'll have soon have somewhere for everyone to live but nothing for anyone to do.....


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## The Fuzzy Furry (10 January 2017)

Its all over the local news & radio stations, huge shame


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## Clodagh (10 January 2017)

I do prefer Sandown, as a track, but so sad, such a piece of history lost.


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## hobo (10 January 2017)

Very sad to hear this. I have a very different memory of Kempton we used to ride our horses in the wood just at the side of the course if a course car saw us they would not be pleased. It was fun trying to get out of the wood after the horses had thundered past without being taken out by a tree! Oh to be young and so very foolish again.


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## Elf On A Shelf (10 January 2017)

Gutted! Newmarket will get a new beach donkey derby track. But we lose an iconic jumps track in the process.

I just hope they don't turn it into a jakey housing scheme!


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## Fools Motto (10 January 2017)

Shocked.
Isn't Dessie buried there?


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## teapot (10 January 2017)

Fools Motto said:



			Shocked.
Isn't Dessie buried there?
		
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His ashes are scattered close to his statue I think. 

What a shame for jump racing.


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## popsdosh (10 January 2017)

Clodagh said:



			I do prefer Sandown, as a track, but so sad, such a piece of history lost.
		
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Personally would watch this space!! Heard it might happen 6 months ago . People want houses near their work better there than open countryside there used to be several race tracks around London that nobody would know had been there now.


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## millhouse (10 January 2017)

Apparently racing will continue at Kempton until 2021.  Let's hope insufficient funds are raised and racing will continue at the Park.  Simply cannot imagine Boxing Day without Kempton and the George


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## dizzyneddy (10 January 2017)

l'm another one totally shocked especially as it's a track that is full of history. l know they have to put housing somewhere but l feel that so much land is being taken for out of town shopping & industrial developments etc. Why can't councils concentrate on regenerating areas or buildings that have already have or were in residential use instead of targeting greenbelt areas. In kemptons case l just think they want to generate money but if that racecourse is lost there's more than just a racetrack gone very sad indeed


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## teapot (10 January 2017)

popsdosh said:



			Personally would watch this space!! Heard it might happen 6 months ago . People want houses near their work better there than open countryside there used to be several race tracks around London that nobody would know had been there now.
		
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Not just London http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32796143


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## Tyssandi (10 January 2017)

Shadowdancing said:



			Absolutely devastated to hear this... Kempton is one of my favourite jumps tracks and to hear they are letting it go to build houses is dreadful news.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...set-to-be-bulldozed-housing-jockey-club-plans

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They wont be happy till they destroy this country and till it is wall to wall brick building and no greenery.  If we did not have so many moving in we would not need to add and destroy places of interest or history.


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## Elf On A Shelf (12 January 2017)

Just listening to a bit on the radio about this and they seem to be adamant that it won't happen. 

Kempton is greenbelt land and if they need more houses and have to take over some greenbelt land Kenpton would be near the bottom of the list of places to look to.

The jockey club have proposed this a few times over the last 10 years and have always been turned down. 

It seems that they think that of they make a huge fuss in the press about it this time it will happen.

No one wants to lose Kempton except from the jockey club themselves!


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## dizzyneddy (12 January 2017)

Councils don't seem to care about greenbelt areas as they have built on two large areas at the end of our village & it's had a big impact on the schools & medical practice. Fingers crossed Kempton will be saved but nothing surprises me any more


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## teapot (12 January 2017)

EKW said:



			It seems that they think that of they make a huge fuss in the press about it this time it will happen.

No one wants to lose Kempton except from the jockey club themselves!
		
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Money talks sadly.


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## Caracarrie (12 January 2017)

TYSSANDI said:



			They wont be happy till they destroy this country and till it is wall to wall brick building and no greenery.  If we did not have so many moving in we would not need to add and destroy places of interest or history.
		
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Don't forget though that this has been going on since men first started living in permanent homes. They cleared forests for farming and gradually built wood then stone homes. The posh folk emparked land for themselves and threw out the yokels and during the Industrial Revolution,  many people upped-sticks and moved to the cities to find work, and thus were created - slums.   Easter Island used to have trees and now there aren't any because of over-use.  My house was built in 1934 and on open farm fields.  After both the Wars a huge number of houses were built in order to clear out slums, and most were built in suburbia.  The little village I grew up in had a council estate built in the 1970s which almost doubled the population.


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## Orangehorse (12 January 2017)

EKW said:



			Just listening to a bit on the radio about this and they seem to be adamant that it won't happen. 

Kempton is greenbelt land and if they need more houses and have to take over some greenbelt land Kenpton would be near the bottom of the list of places to look to.

The jockey club have proposed this a few times over the last 10 years and have always been turned down. 

It seems that they think that of they make a huge fuss in the press about it this time it will happen.

No one wants to lose Kempton except from the jockey club themselves!
		
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This.  The person interviewed is a local councillor who said that land owners are invited to put forward land to be considered as part of the Local Plan (I know that happened locally).  Obviously lots and lots of landowners put forward their land, but not all of it is put into the Plan.  Some comes under Green Belt, plus there are lots of other reasons why land is not included.  Kempton Park, said the Councillor, is consider an important buffer between their District and London.
Time will tell.


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## sam_m (13 January 2017)

EKW said:



			Just listening to a bit on the radio about this and they seem to be adamant that it won't happen. 

Kempton is greenbelt land and if they need more houses and have to take over some greenbelt land Kenpton would be near the bottom of the list of places to look to.

The jockey club have proposed this a few times over the last 10 years and have always been turned down. 

It seems that they think that of they make a huge fuss in the press about it this time it will happen.

No one wants to lose Kempton except from the jockey club themselves!
		
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I was saying to a colleague the other day when this broke that I'm sure as a child when my dad was playing football for a team a 5 min drive from Kempton 20 odd years ago that there were rumours the of them selling it for housing then but no one else seems to remember this. I've always lived "local" to Kempton and would miss it if it went, was my first ever race course to bet at.


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## Shadowdancing (14 January 2017)

I work in housing and the biggest worry is the government push to prioritise house building. Many local authority building plans are incorporating green belt land now and it's not only more acceptable it seems actively encouraged! So what was unfeasible before... could be feasible now. I hope I'm wrong. &#128532;&#128532;&#128532;


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## gunnergundog (14 January 2017)

Loved this article!  Many a true word............

http://www.racingpost.com/news/hors...cr/2227767/top/#newsArchiveTabs=last7DaysNews


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## cobgoblin (14 January 2017)

Add Folkestone racecourse to the list....its fallen victim to 13,000 new houses...taking in a lot of surrounding farmland of course.


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## Caracarrie (14 January 2017)

teapot said:



			Not just London http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32796143

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We used to have one in Manchester - it went under a housing estate some years back.


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## neddy man (14 January 2017)

teapot said:



			Not just London http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32796143

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Thankyou T very interesting reading, maybe other people will tell us of more.


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## popsdosh (15 January 2017)

Shadowdancing said:



			I work in housing and the biggest worry is the government push to prioritise house building. Many local authority building plans are incorporating green belt land now and it's not only more acceptable it seems actively encouraged! So what was unfeasible before... could be feasible now. I hope I'm wrong. &#55357;&#56852;&#55357;&#56852;&#55357;&#56852;
		
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Surely if the country needs housing (which it does) Its a price we have to pay You have to expand the boundaries and keep housing near where the work is otherwise we clog up more roads. Im having 8.5K houses built next door to me which im not happy about however im even more upset in that we are trying to put up two small houses for retired workers so they can stay local and the planners wont have any of it. Money talks in planning!


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## Evie91 (15 January 2017)

Such a shame. My issue around new housing is that it always seems to go up on relatively clear, green spaces. There are lots of old factories, pubs etc closed down near us. I know it would be more expensive to clear and develop these sites or convert but I think this should happen first...


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## Mariposa (15 January 2017)

teapot said:



			Not just London http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-32796143

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I had no idea there used to be a racecourse in North London - how very sad that it was lost along with so many others. 

I think the loss of Kempton is a tragedy, and I found what Nicky Henderson said yesterday regarding the good ground very interesting.  It seems awfully sad that money talks, surely there are other ways to raise funds than sell off one of the jewels of British racing? Once it's gone, its gone - and for somewhere steeped in such history it seems such a shame.


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## tallyho! (15 January 2017)

Wimbles said:



			That's really sad news.  All that history and those memories of Dessie, Kauto etc.

Seems that we'll have soon have somewhere for everyone to live but nothing for anyone to do.....
		
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agreed


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## tallyho! (15 January 2017)

Evie91 said:



			Such a shame. My issue around new housing is that it always seems to go up on relatively clear, green spaces. There are lots of old factories, pubs etc closed down near us. I know it would be more expensive to clear and develop these sites or convert but I think this should happen first...
		
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That would make the most sense, however, trying to apply for planning under current protocols are costly and deemed hardly worth it. 

The planning laws need an overhaul and have needed an overhaul for decades. No hope of anything happening under a tory govt... and that May woman won't change much.


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## Goldenstar (15 January 2017)

We need housing racecourses by their locations are going to under threat .


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## sasquatch (16 January 2017)

This makes David Attenborough's message in Planet Earth about needing to protect our environment around us seem even more poignant, it's not just losing a racecourse, but all the fields and greenbelt land that's now being built on.

I'm in agreement with the poster who said about redeveloping unused factories and old buildings. There are so many wasted spaces in cities filled with empty, unused buildings or half-finished abandoned projects that could be made into housing, but I can imagine the cost is either too much for housing developers, or it's just cheaper to build on fields than redevelop already existing structures.


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## Caracarrie (17 January 2017)

sasquatch said:



			This makes David Attenborough's message in Planet Earth about needing to protect our environment around us seem even more poignant, it's not just losing a racecourse, but all the fields and greenbelt land that's now being built on.

I'm in agreement with the poster who said about redeveloping unused factories and old buildings. There are so many wasted spaces in cities filled with empty, unused buildings or half-finished abandoned projects that could be made into housing, but I can imagine the cost is either too much for housing developers, or it's just cheaper to build on fields than redevelop already existing structures.
		
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The trouble is with brown-field sites, many are horribly contaminated. It costs a fortune to remediate and some cannot be done at all.  There are plenty of stories of people finding their houses are a health hazard.  I grew up in Cornwall and there is a serious problem with arsenic contamination.  Further up around the China clay area there is alot of natural uranium ore - most of Cornwall is radioactive actually and radon gas is a problem in modern draught-free houses.  Our old cottage vented itself quite naturally!.  A friend of mine's uncle put a lump of ore in a wine bottle and kept it by the fire.  Some years later a visitor commented on the beautiful shade of green that the bottle was - and was stunned to hear that it was a colourless, clear bottle at the start!

The other major problem is that so many developments, especially those in the rural and greenbelt locations are huge 5 bedroom detatched places which isn't going to solve any housing problem but makes maximum profit for the developers.  This is why it should be housing associations and councils that should be doing the building and the business of buying your council house should be stopped immediately.  I don't blame people for taking up the offer, especially those in the older 1930s properties that were superbly built and had good sized gardens, but the whole point of council houses was that they were for people who couldn't afford to buy or rent privately.  I rented privately for 20 years and didn't expect my landlord to say I could buy it with a 75% discount because I'd paid all that rent.  Council tenants have already benefited massively from reduced rents and new kitchens/bathrooms on a regular cycle, something private tenants or many houseowners could only dream of.


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## Shadowdancing (24 January 2017)

Let's hear it for the ducks!!

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport...ans_may_hit_buffers_due_to_wildlife_concerns/


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## silu (26 January 2017)

Getting old isn't all bad...nearly! I was at Kempton on that fateful day when Arkle broke his Pedal bone. I will never forget seeing him in the flesh. Head held high and a look of total superiority over his opponents. It will be a sad day indeed if Kempton is lost forever.


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