📢 URGENT UPDATE TO ALL PETITION SIGNATORIES ! The RFU’s Planning Application has been Submitted!
Dear Supporter,
Thank you for backing this campaign against the RFU’s plans to drastically expand large-scale concert events at the Allianz Stadium.
Thanks to you, our community voice has already grown to over 2,600!
The RFU has now submitted its full planning application to Richmond Council.
You can find it here: LBRUT Citizen Portal Planning using Reference PA26/2057.
As expected, they are requesting up to 15 major event days per year, with increased concert capacities up to 75,000 people.
An expansion of this scale will impact the entire Twickenham, Whitton, and wider Richmond area through severe public transport strain, borough-wide road gridlock, increased noise and air pollution, thereby impacting on peaceful enjoyment of our homes and access to local amenities at weekends.
We beat the RFU’s license application with 192 written objections in September 2025, but defeating this planning permission application now requires a MASSIVE community response.
The deadline to object is 24/8/26 so we only have a few weeks to get our objections formally acknowledged. Objections can take a few days to be verified and uploaded to the council’s online portal - so ensure you do not miss the deadline or leave it to the last minute to write to the planning department.
We have a winning case, but only if you act and submit your formal written objection to Richmond Council TODAY!
Please note your objection must include material reasons only as defined under planning guidelines. Please note that Richmond Council cannot consider matters such as the following: (i) property values (ii) personal morals or views about the applicant or concerts in general.
A TEMPLATE LETTER ✉️ you can copy and paste (outlining the key material reasons you can use as valid objections) is provided for you at the end of this email.
Finally, we ask that you please continue to share this petition widely locally with your family, friends, neighbours and others who will be severely impacted by these plans.
Please also share the petition on your social media channels using the links provided on the petition.
Thank you for standing up for Twickenham, Whitton and the surrounding areas.
✉️ LETTER TEMPLATE
To: Richmond Council Planning Department
Application Reference: PA26/2057
Proposal: Phased expansion to host up to 15 Major Non-Sporting Event Days per year at Allianz Stadium.
Objection Reason: Strong Objection based strictly on Material Planning Considerations
To whom it may concern,
I am writing as a local area resident living at [insert address] to formally object to the Rugby Football Union’s application to increase major non-sporting events from 3 to 15 per year at the Allianz Stadium.
As an initial observation, I am aware that the RFU’s planning and licensing restrictions were imposed because of the severe public disorder, anti-social behaviour, and dangerous crowd crushing experienced during the 2018 Eminem concert.
The RFU’s application to lift the licensing restrictions was refused in October 2025.
Since then, I am not aware that any substantive changes have been implemented by the RFU that would change that decision.
On rugby days alone, we are still faced with all of the same issues that were brought to the attention of the Licensing Sub-Committee in September 2025.
The decision in “Arsenal Football Club Plc v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government & Anor [2014] EWHC 2620” has also been brought to my attention.
From what I understand, this remains the landmark case in this area of planning law.
The dispute concerned the limitations placed on major events and non-football activities held at the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal FC sought to increase its allowance for major music concerts from three to six per year, and to allow three major events to take place on Sundays rather than just one. Following a public inquiry, a planning inspector refused the application, finding that the variation would not conform to the local Development Plan and would harm the living conditions of local residents in terms of noise and disturbance. Arsenal FC challenged the decision, but the High Court decided in favour of the Secretary of State and the local authority.
Later decisions allowing increased concerts at other London stadia can be distinguished because they met strict transport infrastructural tests that Allianz Stadium completely fails.
Additionally, Wembley Stadium was built as part of a highly dense, urban masterplan specifically zoned for mass commercial entertainment and is flanked by three separate mass-transit stations (Wembley Park, Wembley Central, Wembley Stadium station) operating across multiple Underground lines, Overground, and National Rail. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was designed for multi-use with a retractable, sliding pitch to handle swift commercial turnaround. It also acts as catalyst for Haringey's urban regeneration zone. The London Stadium / West Ham FC has submitted plans to Newham Council to adjust leisure event limits. However it sits in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a non-residential parkland designed for continuous event rotationwith dispersal through Stratford Station - one of the largest, highest-capacity transport hubs in Europe.
My understanding is that the core underlying planning principle remains: The RFU cannot plead poverty to generate commercial revenue as a material planning reason to override the peace and quiet of its neighbours or materially degrade local amenity.
I request that Richmond Council refuse this application based on its clear breaches of local planning policies:
1. Material Breach of Local Transport Policies (Local Plan Policy 22 - Sustainable Travel)
• Contravention of Policy LP 22: Richmond Council's statutory transport policy mandates that major developments must promote sustainable travel and avoid worsening local traffic congestion. Injecting an extra 20,000 commuters per concert (raising caps from 55,000 to 75,000) directly violates this objective.
• The Emirates Precedent and Transport Deficit: In the Arsenal case, a concert expansion was legally blocked despite the Emirates Stadium being exceptionally well-served by high-frequency transport infrastructure, including three distinct London Underground lines (Piccadilly, Victoria, Great Northern) and comprehensive bus networks.
• Twickenham's Infrastructure Failure: By contrast, Allianz Stadium lacks any Underground connection and relies entirely on a single South Western Railway line at Twickenham Station, a smaller station at Whitton, and a highly constrained local road network. If a modest concert expansion was ruled unsustainable for a heavily connected Zone 2 transport hub, forcing a 500% increase onto Twickenham's fragile, semi-suburban Zone 5 network is completely unfeasible.
• Borough-Wide Gridlock: Major arterial routes, including the A316 (Chertsey Road) and all surrounding connecting roads, face total paralysis during large events. This triggers massive idling queues that repeatedly block critical routes for local emergency services, failing the council’s highway safety requirements.
2. Material Breach of Air Quality Policies (Local Plan Policy 10 & Air Quality Action Plan)
• No 'Existing Development' Loophole: A fivefold increase in event frequency and a 20,000-person capacity hike cannot be shielded behind an 'existing development' loophole by the RFU; this massive operational escalation creates an entirely new, unvetted, and unlawful baseline of cumulative toxic air pollution. The RFU cannot claim environmental neutrality for an intensification of this scale.
• Failure to Meet 'Air Quality Neutral' Standards: Twickenham is already a designated Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) suffering from elevated levels of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) and PM₁₀ particulate matter. Under Council Policy LP 10 and the Air Quality Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), new major schemes are strictly required to be Air Quality Neutral.
• Toxic Congestion Footprint: According to the Council’s own Air Quality Action Plan, road transport is the single largest contributor to local air pollution. Adding 120+ days of heavy commercial logistics vehicles for stage setup/breakdown and loading in and out alongside thousands of private cars and private hire vehicles idling in gridlock—will directly worsen local air pollution and harm public health.
3. Cumulative Noise, Disturbance, and Severe Loss of Local and Visual Amenity
• From Seasonal to Year-Round Nuisance: Moving from 3 to 15 events radically shifts the character of our neighbourhood. It changes an occasional seasonal exception into a persistent, year-round source of noise pollution and severe disruption.
• Midweek Disturbances: The proposal to run successive concert blocks that will include weekdays directly impacts the working hours, school nights, and sleep cycles of families living across the wider area. Stadium-bowl bass amplification, pyrotechnics and lighting functions as an intrusive public nuisance.
• Continuous Industrial Footprint: Each of the 15 concerts requires up to 5 days of setup and 3 days of heavy breakdown. This subjects the wider community to more than 100 days a year of continuous commercial vehicle movements, backup alarms, and industrial noise.
4. Public Disorder and Anti-Social Behaviour.
• Strain on Community Resources: Mass concert audiences generate documented, widespread issues with public urination, heavy littering, and alcohol-fuelled anti-social behaviour and crime along pedestrian dispersal routes throughout Twickenham.
• Prolonged Dispersal Windows: As seen during the 2018 Eminem event, concert crowd profiles create far higher levels of community friction than standard rugby fixtures. It routinely takes over 90 minutes to clear and clean local thoroughfares post-rugby events, severely restricting freedom of movement for local residents. Multiplying this frequency by five and doing so after 10.30 pm is entirely incompatible with a balanced residential environment.
This proposal represents a severe overdevelopment of the stadium's operational capacity. It directly damages local residential amenities, particularly at weekends, undermines borough health targets, and creates severe policy conflicts with Richmond's own transport and air quality frameworks.
The council has already ruled against this expansion on licensing grounds; to approve it now via planning would be a direct contradiction of the council's own safety findings.
I therefore urge the planning committee to protect Twickenham, Whitton and the surrounding area and refuse planning permission.
Yours sincerely,
Name: [Resident Name]
Address: [Your Local Address & Postcode]
[State if you would like your personal details to be redacted]