The Charity Commission has launched an inquiry into the sale of road access to a section of Putney Common over concerns about a ‘potential financial loss’.

The Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators (WPCC) charity has been heavily criticised after it sold permission to build a road across the Common to Wandsworth Council for £350,000 in February 2012.

September 2015: Charity Commission investigates Putney Common road access sell-off after 'irretrievable loss of trust'

The charity granted easement rights to Wandsworth Council to allow a road to be built across Putney Common, giving access to the former Putney Hospital site which has since been turned into a primary school and 24 luxury flats.

However, a qualified surveyor’s report by Montagu Evans LLP in September 2015 found that the land’s value in 2012 was worth £1.9m – a difference of £1.55m. The WPCC was legally obliged to get a qualified surveyor’s report before the sale under the Charities Act 2011, but it has been alleged that they failed to do so.

The Charity Commission has now launched a statutory inquiry into the conduct of the WPCC, which maintains the 1,140 acres of the Common and is funded by a levy paid by approximately 60,000 people in Merton and Wandsworth who live within three-quarters of a mile from Wimbledon Common or in the old parish of Putney.

According to the government website, a statutory inquiry is launched into a charity when ‘the commission identifies and investigates apparent misconduct or mismanagement’.

In a press release on September 16, the Charity Commission said it had ‘serious concerns’ that trustees have not complied with an action plan issued to them in October 2015, following the regulatory compliance case that was opened to examine the potential financial loss in September 2015.

It said: ‘The Commission is also concerned that the trustees may not be able to agree a way forward due to an ongoing dispute within the trustee body and that potential conflicts of interest may impact some trustees’ decision making.

‘The Commission has further concerns that there may be a continuing risk to charitable property’.

In a press release on Monday, September 19, the WPCC said: “Conservators will of course afford the Commission their full cooperation during this investigation. They are currently working with the advice of Charles Russell Speechlys LLP to appoint an appropriate valuer to undertake the retrospective valuation.”

The access road, which stretches from the Lower Richmond Road for just over 100 metres, was built after a Judicial Review in 2014 upheld the charity’s right to sell the land following an appeal launched by campaign group Friends of Putney Common.

What do you think? Email letters@wimbledonguardian.co.uk and let us know