UK: Labour-led Lewisham council attempt land-grab involving football ground
By
Simon Whelan
18 March 2017
In September 2016, Lewisham borough council approved a compulsory purchase order (CPO) on the land surrounding the Den ground and Community Trust facilities rented by Millwall Football Club. This was part of a major redevelopment of the “New Bermondsey” area in south-east London.
The redevelopment would involve the demolition of Millwall’s Den ground, surrounding community facilities and swathes of surrounding public housing.
Earlier this year Lewisham’s mayor, Sir Steve Bullock, said in an official statement that the CPO on Millwall’s land “should not proceed.” Yet at a council meeting only days later, in early February, the order was said to have been only postponed and not cancelled.
The Labour-run council is said to be taking legal advice regarding other avenues for securing the CPO on the Den, and council cabinet members will decide how to proceed after a “review.” Private Eye magazine reported that Millwall FC, fearing the worst, are continuing to explore relocation options outside London in nearby Kent.
The plan by Lewisham council to seize Millwall’s ground and sell it on to an offshore-registered developer has clearly only been put on hold. Tellingly, no binding policy change has occurred regarding the CPO, threatening Millwall’s more than 100-year presence in south-east London.
The “New Bermondsey” development, like all “urban regeneration schemes,” is a policy of gentrification, transforming a historically working class district with large amounts of public housing into a district of upper middle class housing.
A correspondent for the right-wing Daily Telegraph described newly built Bermondsey apartments as “plush yuppie…