The Charity Commission has been called in to investigate an alleged £1.55m loss to levy payers from the sale of road access in Putney Common.

Wandsworth Council bought permission from Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators (WPCC) to build a road across the common to the former Putney Hospital site - which is now being turned into a primary school and 24 luxury flats - for £350,000 in February 2012.

The charity's right to sell off access to the land, protected as public space under the Wimbledon and Putney Commons Act 1871, was upheld in a Judicial Review in 2014 following an appeal launched by campaign group Friends of Putney Common.

An access road was then built extending from the Lower Richmond Road for about half a mile along Putney Common to reach the development.

But newly-elected trustees of WPCC are now calling on its former committee to admit breaching the Charities Act 2011 after a qualified surveyor's report by Montagu Evans LLP put the land's 2012 value at £1.9m - £1.55m more than the £350,000 for which it was sold to the council.

Levy payers include about 60,000 people in Merton, Wandsworth and Kingston who live within three-quarters of a mile of Wimbledon Common or in the old parish of Putney, and pay an average of £34 a year for the preservation of the commons and Putney Heath. 

The Montagu Evans report was commissioned by WPCC trustee John Cameron after he was elected in February following his role in campaigning against the development with Friends of Putney Common.

Mr Cameron and Nicholas Evans, also a campaigner and newly-elected trustee, have claimed the former trustees breached the Charities Act by failing to obtain an independent qualified surveyors report to assess the value of the land.

WPCC has already spent £100,000 of legal fees at levy payers' expense in an attempt to resolve the dispute and conduct a review into whether a qualified surveyor's report was commissioned at the time of the sale.

But the review was abandoned last week after Mr Evans and Mr Cameron claimed its findings could not be entirely independent as lawyers were told about the historic sale price and recommended surveyors were not suitable.

Mr Evans said: "I believe we all need to accept that mistakes were made for whatever reason, that the Charity Commission needs to step in to sort things out - not least the breaches in charity law - and we can then concentrate on supporting the professionals who have done such a good job on the Commons themselves."

WPCC announced on Wednesday, September 16, that a board meeting and public meeting scheduled to take place this month would be delayed until the dispute had been resolved by the Charity Commission.

In a press statement, WPCC chief executive Simon Lee said most people on the board supported the decision to ask the Charity Commission to get involved. 

He said those board members recognised that: "Despite best efforts, the board have been unable to resolve fundamental issues of trust.

"The board is therefore unable to function effectively because of an irretrievable loss of trust between the members, and between some members and the executive.

"The Charity Commission should therefore be invited formally to step in'."

Your Local Guardian:

The flats overlooking Putney Common and an academy-run school with space for 420 pupils are due to open in September 2016.

A Charity Commission spokeswoman said: "I can confirm that concerns have been raised with us about the Wimbledon and Putney Conservators.

"We are urgently assessing these concerns and cannot comment further at this stage."

Got an opinion? Comment below, or email louisa.clarence@london.newsquest.co.uk