Lake Farm Country Park is an expanse of green belt land approximately 60 acres in size fringed by trees and the Grand Union Canal, situated in the south of Hayes in the London Borough of Hillingdon.

[4] The former common land site was located approximately 0.5 km to the south of Wood End, Hayes, immediately to the north of the canal.

Much of the site was formerly managed as arable land, but was latterly entered into set aside and developed as grassland, being cut annually for hay by the agricultural tenant.

[1] Lake Farm was formally made a country park in September 2002, after years of campaigning to save it from development.

[5] On 25 February 2012 more than 100 local residents took to the streets to protest about Hillingdon Council's plan to build a primary school in the park, in open defiance of its own Green Belt policy.

[6] Since announcing its intentions, Hillingdon Council has stood firm in the face of public discontent, confirming in August 2012 that "the planning application [was] being tweaked.

Hayes and Harlington MP John McDonnell was one of five petitioners who spoke on behalf of hundreds of campaigners to strongly oppose the idea of building on Lake Farm.

"[9] The Uxbridge Gazette reported on 24 April 2013 that London's Mayor Boris Johnson, who at the beginning of the year had raised major concerns about the idea of building on Lake Farm, would not intervene in Council plans to build a school on three hectares of green belt land, at the eastern end of Lake Farm Country Park.

Conservative leader of the council Ray Puddifoot claimed: "Opponents of the scheme have been given every opportunity to come up with an alternative site, but nothing feasible has materialised so we need to press ahead with the agreed proposal.

[1] In July 2012 birdwatchers descended on the park to catch a glimpse of a red-backed shrike, which is extremely rare in the United Kingdom.