Ealing Council has announced that premiership football club Queens Park Rangers is its preferred bidder for the lease of Warren Farm sports ground in Southall.

The club wants to develop the site as its new training ground. The proposal also includes delivering a range of much needed new facilities to benefit local people, including a community sports pavilion, improved football and cricket pitches, Astroturf training pitch and multi-use games areas suitable for a range of sports including netball and tennis.

Warren Farm sports ground is a neglected sports ground on Windmill Lane, Southall. It has around 30 football, cricket and netball pitches.

The council received five bids for the lease, which were assessed against a range of criteria, including the community facilities they proposed to provide and the deliverability of the schemes.

The bids were considered by a panel, including independent planning and property experts. The QPR bid best met all those criteria.

QPR's owners are planning to spend around £6 million on bringing it up to Premier League standards.

The council will now work with QPR, local residents and the site’s existing users to ensure the scheme delivers real benefits for the local community. It will also look at whether any of the unsuccessful bidders could be given the opportunity to work with the council and the club to help deliver some aspects of the proposals.

Council Leader, Councillor Julian Bell, said: "The Warren Farm site gives us a fantastic opportunity to provide some excellent new facilities for the use of the whole community. I’m delighted that the project is moving forward and I hope residents and existing users will help shape the plans."

No lease, contract or development agreement has been signed. The council will continue to work with the club as it develops its proposals. Ealing Council is offering a 200-year lease on Warren Farm.

All the plans are subject to the club obtaining planning permission for the site. The proposals will be considered by Ealing’s Planning Committee and the Mayor of London in due course.

Southall Football Club, who play in the Middlesex County Premier League, also submitted their proposal to Ealing Council. They were backed by some wealthy Asian businessmen willing to invest around £20m into Warren Farm.

Their aim was to create something that would benefit the people of Southall and the surrounding area.

The case against the QPR bid was that a professional football club would not be interested in the people of Southall and that ordinary people would not be allowed to use the facilities there.