Do you honestly think that it is possible that planning permission would be easy to obtain given that there is such strong local opposition from residents, Heathfield and Whitton councillors and Tania Mathias? Even if possible, the planning process could be a very long drawn-out affair. The negotiations with Hounslow Council on the sale have already gone on for over a year and there's still no guarantees that the purchase by the EFA will be successful.
Whittonmum I would turn that round and say why wouldn't the planning permission be forthcoming if the political will is there? The Council have shown themselves willing to fly in the face of more substantial local opposition. The Conservatives have a majority on the Planning Committee and can pretty much vote through what they wish as they did with the Solum development, St RR etc. in the face of powerful local opposition (including the then local MP) . It is the power underlying their steamroller approach to the proposed Riverside development as well. When local opposition materialised against the Twickenham Green GEMS school planning application they simply withdrew the application and exploited the right granted to Free Schools to build it anyway and apply for planning permission retrospectively. Local residents have no right of appeal in the Planning process, whilst those applying for permission have. In fact the basis of a lot of planning decisions is that were it to go to appeal the Inspector would, given the planning framework, overturn a refusal, which would probably be the case here given the legislative and strategic framework. Of course residents can take it to Judicial Review but there have been two of those already, and based on those experiences, and the legislative and strategic framework around Free Schools and school place provision the EFA, Dof E and Council would expect to have a powerful and winnable case.
The issue is where the political will lies. On the one hand Tania Mattias and the Councillors came out strongly in support of residents at a time when they were contesting a parliamentary seat. Not surprising, all sorts of other tactics were employed across the seat eg money suddenly materialising for the St RR refurbishment from a fund intended for existing schools, to mobilise every last ounce of support for Tania Mattias and overturn the seat.
On the other hand the school has to be sited somewhere and they would not have announced the Whitton site if they hadn't considered it the most politically expedient. There is no site in Fulwell, so to keep trotting the argument out that the school should be in Fulwell is frankly NIMBY which gets you nowhere in influencing the Planning process. The Council will be under political pressure from above to deliver a site, especially given they gave one site to the Catholic Church, scuppered the negotiations on another and have taken another site for their own free school project (in theory the Free school first approved i.e Turing has priority for any site, though obviously in the case of the Egerton Road site that would not be sensible in terms of the overall strategic aims for Richmond College) . In any case wherever the school is sited they will have to weather opposition from local residents. If I had to bet on any outcome being a front runner at the moment I would guess it would be a face saving announcement that they have offered up the Uxbridge Road site but if for whatever reason it has to be the Whitton site I am sure they could and would push planning permission through.