'Environmental racism': council approves rubber crumb football pitch at Whitefoot Lane, Downham

Lewisham Council has granted planning permission for the creation of a rubber crumb Artificial Grass Pitch (AGP) stretching 97m by 61 metres at Whitefoot Lane Playing Field in Downham.

This follows an earlier decision by the Mayor and Cabinet in October 2025 to transfer the management and maintenance of the Whitefoot Lane School Playing Fields to Bonus Pastor Secondary School (part of St Benedict Academy Trust) through a long-term lease.

At the planning committee meeting on Thursday 12 March, councillors were split down the middle on how to proceed and the chair had to step in twice with his casting vote to ensure the application passed.

In addition to the crumb rubber infill synthetic football pitch, the planning permission allows for six floodlights of 15 metres in height, along with perimeter fencing, hardstanding areas, a storage container and a 3.25-metre-high acoustic barrier.    

The campaign to protect Whitefoot Lane playing fields and increase public access has been extensively covered by Salamander News, including recent calls for a halt to plans for the rubber crumb pitch while a health assessment was undertaken, and the council's deflection of questions about health risks raised by councillor Hau-Yu Tam in January.

Our reporting last October gave voice to community groups have been critical of Lewisham council's stewardship of the playing fields, and described the plans as "ecological vandalism".

How the planning committee considered the application

The applicant was Lewisham Council’s Capital Delivery Team, so the council was in effect applying for planning permission from itself.

At the outset of the meeting a presentation was made by Lewisham Council planning department leading to questions from councillors covering drainage, hours of operation of the football pitch, noise levels, the hours that the floodlights would operate and the impact of the proposals for archery club who currently use the playing fields every Sunday.  

The key issue of the health impact of rubber crumb was taken up by councillor Hau-Yu Tam.

The applicants (Lewisham council officers) then presented their proposals, with the primary argument being that Lewisham was lacking in the number of suitable football pitches. It was claimed that the borough was hindered by grass football pitches being overused leading to them being compacted and waterlogged, resulting in many football games being cancelled during winter months.

Pre-empting further questioning by councillors, James Lee, Lewisham Council’s Director of Place, boldly dismissed concerns about the risks from rubber crumb claiming that those risks were “nothing” compared to the risks for young people being denied access to sport participation who he claimed could be “cooped up in potentially dangerous households.”    

When questioned by Councillor Tam about the health impact of rubber crumb and the EU ban on its sale, Graham Neville (Lewisham Council’s Sport and Service Manager) stated there was a "knowledge gap" in its usage and sought to make a distinction between the EU ban on its sale (which will be introduced in 2031) and a potential ban on its usage.

Objections from local GP and community

The planning committee finally heard from three objectors to the application: Tim Oshodi, who leads Downham Community Land Trust (CLT), Dr Jacky McLeod, a GP in Lewisham for over 30 years with public health expertise and Terry Archbold, club secretary of Bromley Archery Club, which has used the playing fields at weekends for the last 20 years.

Speaking to her understanding of the health impacts of rubber crumb, Dr McLeod stated that the proposed application would lead to the release into the local environment of “toxic hydrocarbons, microplastics, PFAS, lead and arsenic ..

"These toxic materials would enter our children’s bodies via the skin, nose and mouth with cumulative impact as they engage in routine school sport."

She explained that children are more at risk than adults for three development reasons: "Their active growth and rapidly dividing cells means they're more at risk of cancer mutations.

"They have higher rates of intakes of air and ingested materials relative to their body weight and their metabolism is immature so the organs and less able to detoxify chemicals." 

She endorsed Tim Oshodi's examples of environmental racism in the local area saying: "I’ve studied how environmental racism affects communities in my Public Health Masters .. and it's about putting this kind of thing in an area, where in other areas it would have been rejected because of the health risks .."

She added: "I would have loved to see an options appraisal."

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The voting

At the conclusion of questioning by councillors, a proposal to reject the application was made by councillor Tam, who stated there was an “alternative vision for the site” as well alternative materials that could be used.

However, her motion to reject the application did not receive support from any other councillors, so her proposal fell.

Councillor Stephen Penfold (Brockley ward) then proposed to defer the application until more information was provided to the committee on the potential health impact of rubber crumb, as well as information on alternative materials.

His proposal to defer was supported by both councillor Liz Johnson-Franklin (Ladywell ward) and councillor Tam, but opposed by councillors Peter Bernards (Forest Hill), James Royston (Catford South) and Luke Warner (Blackheath).

Councillor Bernards, as chair of the planning committee then used his casting vote - in effect second vote - to reject the proposal, so this proposal also fell.

A third proposal, to accept the application, was then put forward by councillor Royston.

He stated that he shared Penfold's concerns about the impact on health, adding that he was concerned about micro plastics going into the local environment which “we as a council should be doing everything in our powers to prevent.”

However, he stated that the field will "greatly increase access to a local facility in an area that very much needs it .."

He suggested that the council were afraid that they would lose their grant funding if they were to choose a safe alternative to rubber crumb, "We don’t currently have alternatives if we wanted to be Sport England compliant."

He therefore recommended acceptance of the application.

When put to a vote he was joined by councillor Bernards as well as councillor Warner, leading again to a split vote.  And once again councillor Bernards, as chair of the planning committee, used his casting vote and the application by Lewisham Council was finally approved.

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