Football academy hits out at council for its ‘scare’ tactics

DIRECTOR SAID AUTHORITY TRYING TO INTIMIDATE WITH HUGE REPAIRS BILL

- By PHILIP JAMES LYNCH

Hide Miyahara outside the academy building

(FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA)

A WEST London football academy has accused Ealing Council of trying to force them out of local playing fields with a huge bill for repairs, in an ongoing dispute about extending their lease.

Football Samurai Academy, based at North Acton Playing Fields, has been engaged in an ongoing dispute with the council over the lease of the land and building it operates from.

Hideyuki (Hide) Miyahara, the director, claims the council is trying to intimidate the academy.

He claimed: “They [Ealing Council] have given us this new figure of £490,000 for dilapidation costs; after saying we are going to court I think they are trying to scare us off. I've thought maybe I should just listen to them because I want us to have a good relationship, but suddenly now they are saying we have to pay half a million pounds. It’s not possible”

In June, Mr Miyahara told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the council was attempting to evict the football academy without prior consultation, and despite over £150,000 of investment in the site by the academy.