Hillingdon says the Mayor's green belt search seems to leave six open spaces in play, including Herlwyn Park and Ickenham Green, in its reply on 14,750 homes.
Hillingdon Council says the Mayor of London’s search for green belt building land appears not to have ruled out some of the borough’s best used open spaces. They include the home grounds of Ruislip RFC, Northwood FC and Ickenham Cricket Club.
The claim is in the council’s formal response to the draft London Plan, a 91-page document it published on 26 October. The draft plan asks Hillingdon to deliver 24,030 homes over ten years, more than double its current target. Of those, 14,750 would be on green belt land around Northwood, West Ruislip and East of Ickenham. (Hillingdon Council)
The six open spaces
The Mayor’s evidence says public open space was one of the “primary constraints” used to screen land out. But the council says the Mayor’s own map, Figure 7 of the Green Belt Strategic Approach, shows several large public open spaces in Hillingdon as not covered by any constraint. “It is therefore assumed they have not been sieved out and have been taken forward as suitable sites,” the response says.
The examples it gives are:
- Herlwyn Park, home to Ruislip RFC
- Northwood Recreation Ground, home to Northwood FC
- Northwood Cemetery
- Hillingdon House Farm Sports Ground and its newt waterways project
- Ickenham Green, home to Ickenham Cricket Club
- Dowding Park, the new park on the St Andrews Park development
The council cannot say for certain. The Mayor has not published the site by site results of the search, so the council says it “must guess what sites have been deemed suitable and unsuitable”. It wants the sieving exercise shared with boroughs so those spaces can be checked and taken out. (Draft London Plan response, sections 2.5 and 5.2)
East of Ickenham: 7,000 homes
The largest single figure in the draft is 7,000 homes in the East of Ickenham green belt location. The council says that is the only breakdown it was given. For brownfield sites the Mayor shared a detailed site schedule; for green belt land, the council says it received nothing beyond the totals already in the draft plan.
It also questions the reach of the search. The Mayor’s method looked for land within a 1,200 metre walk of a station. The council says land off Breakspear Road South appears to be much further than that from West Ruislip station. It describes that stretch and New Years Green Lane as “agricultural roads with no walkways or any bus route at present”.
The build-out sums
The response spends several pages on how fast the homes could be built.
- The Mayor assumes first completions three years in, which the council says means homes on site from April 2030.
- Once building starts, the Mayor allows up to 1,000 homes a year on each green belt location, citing Milton Keynes.
- Research by the planning consultancy Lichfields, which the Mayor also cites, found sites of 2,000 or more homes are built at 100 to 188 a year (the lower to upper quartile).
- The same research puts the time from an outline application to the first home on sites of 500 or more at 4.9 to 6.7 years.
On those numbers, the council says the ten-year green belt target looks “wholly undeliverable”. It points out that Lichfields leaves London out of its research altogether, and that Milton Keynes was a designated new town of nearly 9,000 hectares growing on many fronts at once.
What else the council objects to
- Small sites: the draft expects 5,571 homes from small sites in Hillingdon over ten years, almost double the figure in the current London Plan. The council says the Mayor refused part of its request for the data behind it.
- Heathrow: the council says the plan sets “an exceptional target of 24,030 homes in Hillingdon” while making almost no attempt to assess what Heathrow expansion would mean for the same land, roads and utilities.
- The Inspiration golf course: an industrial growth location by the M40 near Northolt appears to cover the new golf course. The council says it opened only recently, after more than a decade of land restoration.
- Sipson and Harlington: the Hillingdon part of a second industrial location by the M4 is flanked by homes, some backing directly onto it. Lorries reaching the motorway could pass through both villages.
It does back some of the draft. The response welcomes Hayes as a major growth location and Stockley Park as a new mixed-use neighbourhood, and asks for Hayes to be upgraded to a major town centre.
Councillor Steve Tuckwell, the council’s leader, said: “Our green belt is not spare land waiting to be built on. It protects communities from urban sprawl, supports wildlife and provides the open spaces our residents value. Once it is gone, it is gone for good.”
What it means for you
Nothing changes on the ground yet. The London Plan is still a draft, and its consultation closed on 15 October. The next stage is a public examination by independent inspectors, where the council’s objections will be tested.
What matters is the order things happen in. Under national policy, a housing figure set in the London Plan should not be argued again when Hillingdon writes its own Local Plan, unless circumstances change significantly. So the 7,000 for East of Ickenham, and the totals for West Ruislip and Northwood, will be settled at the examination, not later.
If you use one of the six open spaces, the council’s response is the first public record to name them. Whether they are really in the Mayor’s search area will only be known if the GLA publishes its site results.
Our earlier coverage: the Joel Street Farm green belt petition, the Local Plan consultation, and the latest decisions on our planning news page.
Sources
- Hillingdon calls for major changes to London Plan, Hillingdon Council, 26 October 2026
- Draft London Plan 2026 consultation: response by the London Borough of Hillingdon, October 2026 (sections 2.5, 3.1, 4, 5.1 to 5.4 and 7.2)
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