A high court judge has quashed Enfield council's decision to grant Tottenham Hotspur planning permission for a women's and girls' football training academy in Whitewebbs Park, north London. The campaign group Guardians of Whitewebbs successfully argued that councillors had been "materially misled", as they were not given full information about the development's environmental impact before approving the scheme in February last year. The ruling is a significant setback for the club, which had already secured a 25-year lease on the site in 2023 and faced down an earlier legal challenge to that lease in 2024.

Sir Tim Kerr found that the outcome "could well have been different" had councillors seen a report by ecologist Giles Sutton, who had privately told the council it was "counterintuitive" to claim environmental benefit when roughly 40% of the park would be lost to the plans, which included ten football pitches. Council officers had nonetheless told members there was "no objection" to the scheme. The judge dismissed separate claims of bias arising from Spurs' close access to senior council figures, calling them "weak". Enfield council, now under Conservative minority control after being Labour-run at the time of the decision, had already withdrawn its defence of the case last month, though Spurs continued to contest the challenge.