Over 1,500 Sign Petition to Save Samurai Academy
Sports club facing eviction from North Acton Playing Fields
Children and coaches at the threatened facility. Picture: Samurai Academy
June 3, 2025
A petition to Ealing Council to stop the eviction of a local sports club has been signed by over 1,500 people.
The Football Samurai Academy and affiliated tennis activities have been based at North Acton Playing Fields for over 12 years during which time it has invested in the facilities.
It aims to provide and inclusive, grassroots sports programme to the local community and says it reaches more than 240 children from over 25 nationalities through football and 120 through tennis.
It has partnerships with local schools and hosts a number of community events. In 2017, it received in principle agreement from the council for an extension of its lease through to 2043. This was followed up by a signed Heads of Terms and a draft lease in last year.
Assuming it had secure tenure, the club used its own funds to invest £150,000 into improvements to the site — including the construction of a 3G pitch and building refurbishment.
However, without any prior consultation and with no justification provided, an eviction notice was delivered to the club on 25 March.
The petition asks the council to rescind the eviction notice and formalise the lease extension.
It says, “Evicting a trusted, long-serving organisation without clear cause or community consultation not only disrupts hundreds of families and children — it undermines years of public-private cooperation and community investment. We urge Ealing Council to do the right thing and work with us, not against us, for the benefit of future generations.”
An Ealing Council spokesperson said, "We are committed to maintaining community sports and the continuity of sports facilities at North Acton playing fields, and are currently considering a number of opportunities.
"The director of Football Samurai Academy no longer has a lease for the playing fields. They haven’t had a lease for a number of years and as such have now been issued a notice to quit the premises. We are in legal discussions with the football academy and cannot disclose the details at this time."
Click here if you wish to sign the petition.
Value Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |